Remuneration

Directors’ remuneration

The most common form of remuneration for board directors is through a mixed structure, i.e., a combination of cash and shares. From our sample of 47 companies, 74% (35/47) remunerate non-executive directors this way.

26% of companies (12/47) pay directors under a cash retainer scheme exclusively.

The average NED retainer fee is CHF 190 670 across the SMI Expanded, 2.9% lower than last year’s average. The decrease is driven by falling average retainer fees, particularly among SMI Mid companies affected by changes to the composition of the SMI Mid.

NED retainer fees are unchanged at 76% of SMI Expanded companies; a further 8% of SMIM companies paid only minor increases averaging less than 5%.

Across all SMI companies 68.09% (32/47) of NEDs are paid in shares, 3.41% fewer than last year. The average NED fee paid in shares is CHF 74 001 in shares.

NED retainer

	2023 (CHF)	2022 (CHF)	% change
SMI	222 807	216 492	+2.9%
SMI Mid	165 949	181 436	-8.5%
SMI Expanded	190 670	196 353	-2.9%

Chair remuneration

The average retainer fee for chairs is CHF 1 279 183 across all SMI Expanded companies, marking a 3.1% increase from 2022. In the SMI Mid, the increase was 4.9%, taking the chair average fee to CHF 688 502.

The majority of chair fees are composed of cash and shares, with the exception of 12 companies.

71% of companies did not change their chair retainer fee; 8% of companies awarded small increases of less than 5%.

Chair retainer

	2023 (CHF)	2022 (CHF)	% change
SMI	2 001 125	1 986 706	+0.7%
SMI Mid	688 502	656 513	+4.9%
SMI Expanded	1 279 183	1 240 500	+3.1%

Average total fees for non-executive directors on SMI Expanded boards are significantly higher than in most other international markets. The exception of the US, where average total compensation for directors of S&P 500 companies is 23% higher than in the SMI Expanded.

Please note that in order to ensure comparability, individuals who are members of the board while also holding executive responsibilities (e.g. executive chairs or combined chair/CEOs) are excluded.

International comparison

	Chair fees	NED fees
Nordics	€168 912	€63 181
UK	£433 935	£76 868
US	$327 764	$143 106
Switzerland	CHF 1 279 183	CHF 190 670

Committee remuneration

40 of the 47 SMI Expanded companies under review provide an additional fee for committee work on top of the board retainer. Of these 40, 26 pay additional fees for all of their committees; 14 companies pay additional fees only for some committees. Seven companies do not disclose their remuneration policies regarding committee work.

Average core committee fees (CHF ‘000)

	Chair		Member
	SMI	SMI Mid	SMI	SMI Mid
Audit	121	65	56	28
Remuneration	88	55	41	24
Risk	219	53	84	53

The highest average compensation is paid to SMI audit and risk committee chairs, significantly surpassing the average paid to their SMI Mid counterparts.

The difference is particularly stark among risk committees, which are compulsory only for financial institutions. Even when companies maintain both an audit committee and a risk committee, members of the risk committee are on average paid the largest fees.