By Siow Li Sen

Bonuses and pay increases for staff at foreign banks here are lower this year - which is not surprising given that most have reported a fall in their 2011 profits.

The picture for those working in local banks could be mixed.

DBS, which last Friday reported record earnings of $3.04 billion, the highest ever for a local bank, will not be paying record bonuses, said chief executive Piyush Gupta. 'The best year was 2006, as it was for other banks,' he noted.

DBS' return on equity (ROE) in 2006 was 12.8 per cent. ROE for 2011 was 11 per cent.

Still, pay for staff rose sharply last year over 2010, up 20 per cent to $1.7 billion as headcount gained 11 per cent to 17,652. This works out to each employee earning an average of $96,986 from $89,733 in 2010.

As DBS staffers started learning of their bonus payouts yesterday, one said that her total payout was the best she had ever got. But she conceded that this may not be the case for others whose basic pay may be relatively higher.

It is uncertain if OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank - which will be reporting their full-year results later this month - will maintain bonuses at 2010 levels. For the first nine months of 2011, operating profits at the two local banks were slightly down.