Banking Compensation and Benefits Compliance Training Course

Course overview

Bank remuneration teams must balance competitive pay, retention and incentive design with rules intended to prevent excessive risk-taking. In banks, a poorly documented material risk taker population, an incorrect bonus deferral schedule, or weak malus and clawback wording can create supervisory findings, employee disputes and costly remediation. This course addresses the operational work behind compliant banking compensation: translating remuneration rules into governance, plan design, payroll controls, committee papers and auditable records.

Participants examine the banking remuneration framework across fixed and variable pay, material risk taker identification, bonus pools, performance adjustment, deferral, instruments, retention periods, buy-outs and severance. They learn to map requirements from CRD V, the EBA Guidelines on Sound Remuneration Policies and FCA SYSC remuneration rules into a practical control framework. The course also develops skills in preparing remuneration committee evidence, conducting proportionality assessments, reviewing incentive plans and testing whether HR, risk, finance and payroll data support regulatory reporting.

Teaching combines instructor-led regulatory interpretation with worked banking cases, Excel-based calculations, policy reviews and cross-functional workshops. Participants build a bank remuneration compliance pack containing a material risk taker assessment, variable-pay compliance checklist, deferral and vesting schedule, malus/clawback decision record and remediation action plan. This deliverable can be adapted for use in their own annual remuneration cycle.

The programme is designed for experienced HR, reward, risk, compliance and governance professionals who already work with banking pay processes and need a stronger command of the controls, evidence and decisions expected by regulators and remuneration committees.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Classify employees against Material Risk Taker criteria using a documented evidence matrix
• Map CRD V, EBA and FCA remuneration requirements to bank compensation policies and operating controls
• Calculate compliant variable-pay deferral, vesting, instrument and retention schedules in Excel
• Design risk-adjusted performance scorecards that incorporate financial, non-financial and conduct measures
• Apply malus and clawback decision criteria to documented employee and business-risk scenarios
• Prepare a remuneration committee paper with challenge questions, approvals and evidence references
• Test bonus, buy-out and severance arrangements against applicable banking remuneration restrictions
• Produce a remediation plan for compensation-control gaps, including owners, deadlines and assurance evidence

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Banking Reward and Compensation Managers — who design and administer variable-pay and executive remuneration arrangements
• HR Business Partners in Banks — who advise business leaders on performance, pay decisions and employee communications
• Compliance Officers — who review remuneration policies, regulatory obligations and control evidence
• Risk Managers — who must connect risk outcomes, conduct findings and capital considerations to variable-pay decisions
• Remuneration Committee Secretaries — who prepare papers, minutes and decision records for board-level oversight
• Payroll and HR Operations Managers — who implement deferral, vesting, withholding and payment controls accurately

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in HR, reward, payroll, risk, compliance or governance within a bank, building society, investment firm or closely regulated financial institution. They should understand the distinction between fixed and variable remuneration, annual bonus processes, performance management and basic employee data handling. Familiarity with spreadsheets is required, including filters, formulas and reviewing tabular data in Microsoft Excel. Participants do not need to be lawyers, actuaries, accountants or specialists in prudential regulation, and no prior experience of coding, HRIS configuration or regulatory reporting software is required.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short technical briefings to explain banking remuneration rules, followed by guided application to a fictional cross-border bank. Participants review policy extracts, classify employees using a material risk taker matrix, calculate deferral and vesting schedules in Excel, and challenge bonus outcomes using risk and conduct data. Small groups prepare committee papers and defend decisions in a simulated remuneration committee meeting. Each participant finishes with an application plan identifying the controls, documents and stakeholders needed for their next remuneration cycle.

Course outline

Day 1: Banking remuneration regulation and governance

• Purpose of prudential remuneration rules and the link to excessive risk-taking
• CRD V remuneration provisions and EBA Guidelines on Sound Remuneration Policies
• FCA SYSC remuneration requirements and UK banking governance expectations
• Fixed versus variable remuneration classification tests
• Roles of the board, remuneration committee, risk function and compliance function
• Remuneration policy architecture, annual review cycles and control ownership
• Building a regulatory obligations register for compensation processes

Workshop: Participants map a bank's remuneration policy clauses to regulatory obligations and produce a gap-and-owner register.

Day 2: Material risk takers and compliant pay structures

• Qualitative and quantitative Material Risk Taker identification criteria
• Data sources for role, authority, compensation and risk-impact assessments
• Documenting exclusions, overrides and annual population changes
• Variable-to-fixed remuneration ratio requirements and shareholder approval considerations
• Guaranteed variable remuneration and sign-on award restrictions
• Buy-out award design, equivalence testing and due-diligence evidence
• Severance payment assessment and failure-based reduction principles

Workshop: Participants complete a Material Risk Taker assessment for a sample bank population and document decisions for borderline roles.

Day 3: Deferral, instruments and risk-adjusted performance

• Deferral percentages, periods and proportionality considerations
• Vesting schedules, retention periods and payment-event controls
• Shares, share-linked instruments and other eligible instrument approaches
• Ex ante risk adjustment of bonus pools and individual awards
• Financial, risk, conduct and customer-outcome performance measures
• Designing balanced scorecards and preventing formulaic bonus outcomes
• Excel modelling for deferred-award and retention-period calculations

Workshop: Participants build an Excel deferral and vesting schedule for material risk takers and test it against a proposed bonus plan.

Day 4: Malus, clawback and remuneration control testing

• Malus and clawback triggers for misconduct, risk failure and material error
• Evidence thresholds and investigation interfaces for award adjustment
• Individual accountability, collective accountability and business-unit events
• Decision documentation for reductions, cancellations and recoveries
• Payroll, HRIS and legal controls for implementing award adjustments
• Testing compensation controls across policy, approval, calculation and payment stages
• Issue rating, remediation design and second-line assurance reporting

Workshop: Participants work through a conduct and losses case, decide the appropriate malus response and produce a documented decision record.

Day 5: Committee reporting and implementation planning

• Remuneration committee paper structure, decision requests and evidence packs
• Management information for material risk takers, deferral and risk adjustment
• Annual remuneration-cycle calendar and critical control points
• Cross-functional handoffs between HR, risk, finance, legal and payroll
• Regulatory reporting readiness and audit-trail retention
• Communicating complex remuneration outcomes to employees and senior leaders
• Remediation roadmaps, control owners and measurable completion criteria

Workshop: Participants prepare and present a remuneration committee pack and a 90-day remediation plan for a simulated banking compensation review.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Workday HCM, EBA Guidelines on Sound Remuneration Policies, FCA SYSC 19D

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions