At least some have a sense of shame. If Wall Street can't reach a unanimous decision on this issue, someone is going to have to step in and force it because there is no way people are going to tolerate such a fleecing of the system.
As a number of American banks resist calls to rein in executive pay, the unthinkable is happening — at least in Switzerland, where three former officials of UBS, the troubled Swiss financial giant, said on Tuesday that they would forgo more than $27 million in compensation.
Marcel Ospel, the former chairman of the board at the Swiss bank, and Stephan Haeringer and Marco Suter, two former directors, said they would give up pay promised them after the bank reported nearly $50 billion in losses and received even more than that in financial support from the Swiss government.
“With the involvement of the Swiss government, I realized that decisive action was required on my part,” Mr. Ospel said in a statement. “I hope that my action will help to resolve a situation that was inconceivable to me until a short time ago,” he said.
Mr. Ospel will contribute more than two-thirds of the total; the balance will be paid by Mr. Haeringer and Mr. Suter.
In response, UBS issued a very brief statement: “We welcome the decision.”
