£63m bonanza for Rothschild staff

STAFF at NM Rothschild, the blue-blooded merchant bank, have shared in a £63m bonus bonanza.

The windfall, an average of £80,000 per employee, was paid in March - six months earlier than usual.

The move was designed to protect staff from Chancellor Gordon Brown's 1% rise in National Insurance contributions at the start of the tax year last April.

Such a move is rare. One banker said: 'The only time I've ever known bonus payments to be brought forward was when it looked as if Neil Kinnock was going to be Prime Minister. City banks were worried that he was going to raise taxes and they didn't want staff to suffer.'

NM Rothschild posted its annual results on its website on Friday. They revealed that profits slipped by 10.3% to £19.1m in the year to March.

Total bonuses were down 7% on the previous year.

The bank is headed by Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, 71, who is shortly stepping down as chairman after 27 years. He said the results 'demonstrated a resilient performance' but warned that the year ahead 'will continue to be difficult'.

The bank's 34 executive directors shared £18.2m - an average of £536,000 each - plus a further £3.8m under a special incentive scheme. The highest paid director, who was not named, collected £2.7m.

NM Rothschild recently announced plans to merge with its French counterpart. Baron David de Rothschild, who heads the French arm, will then take control. The bank, which laid off 5% of staff - taking the head count to 787 - was the number one-rated adviser in British merger deals last year.