Variable Salary Part (VSP)

VSP may be offered to selected managers and specialists to reward strong performance and to attract, motivate and retain employees with strong performance within Nordea Group. VSP must be transparent and have predefined success criteria with clear weightings. A VSP must include financial and non-financial success criteria based on Nordea Group KPIs decided annually by CEO. In the event of weak or negative overall Nordea Group results, VSP outcomes will be adjusted downwards at the discretion of the CEO.

A VSP agreement does not exceed a maximum outcome of 25% of annual fixed salary, except for very few managers and key employees within specific areas, where the amount can be a maximum of 50% of annual fixed salary. Responsible GEM member may in extraordinary cases approve a VSP agreement exceeding 50% of annual fixed salary.

Nordea adheres to the Grandparent principle when enrolling employees to any VSP scheme and approving the outcome. The Board of Directors decides on VSP outcome for CEO and GEM on proposal from the Board Remuneration Committee. Nordea has introduced deferral programmes for the staff in the risk analysis defined as Identified Staff.

Source: Annual Report 2011