* Compensation part of 5-year bonus scheme
* Top investment, private bankers get over 30 mln Sfr
* Bumper awards to fuel public debate on executive pay
ZURICH, March 31 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.VX) stoked debate on executive pay in Switzerland on Wednesday by awarding Chief Executive Brady Dougan shares worth around 71 million Swiss francs ($66.60 million) under a five-year bonus plan.
Almost 400 of its executives and other managers would receive shares worth a total of over 3 billion francs under the incentive plan, Switzerland's second-biggest bank by assets said.
Head of investment banking Paul Calello and private bank chief Walter Berchtold pocketed shares worth around 37 million francs and 34 million francs, respectively, at Thursday's closing price.
The bumper awards are likely to feed a passionate debate on executive compensation in Switzerland, where people will vote in a referendum on a proposal to cap managers' pay.
The proposal seeks to introduce annual approval by shareholders of the salaries of directors and managers of listed companies and also aims to ban special termination or entry payments for top managers.
Credit Suisse made it through the financial crisis without state aid despite a hefty loss in 2008 and returned to a handsome profit in 2009, unlike cross-town rival UBS AG (UBSN.VX) , which had to be bailed out by the government and still lost money last year.
UBS paid its investment banking co-chief over 13 million francs, mainly in bonuses, in 2009 after the unit booked a pretax loss of 6 billion francs, against a loss of 34 billion francs the previous year.
Other European banks like HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) and Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) also gave their top bankers multimillion-dollar bonuses for 2009.
CLAW BACK
Chief Executive Dougan topped Credit Suisse's pay list in 2009 with a total of 19.2 million francs, bringing his pay check back close to pre-crisis levels. The bank paid its executive board a total of 148.9 million francs last year, 132.4 million francs of it in bonuses. [ID:nLDE62O0E2]
Politicians from the Group of 20 countries drafted new bonus rules in the wake of the global financial crisis in an attempt to discourage short-term risk taking, mainly by deferring payouts and by introducing claw-back options. [ID:nL722182]
Credit Suisse unveiled new compensation rules last year allowing the company to hold bonuses for three to four years and potentially claw back pay if investments failed to perform over a prolonged period. [ID:nN20433456]
Credit Suisse said the new compensation structure is consistent with the G20 guidelines, which include a ban on multiyear bonus guarantees.
