* Pay for Brady Dougan up one third to 7.77 mln Sfr
* Robert Shafir is top earner with 10.59 mln Sfr
* Chairman Rohner sees pay rise one third to 5.23 mln Sfr
* UBS's CEO Ermotti earned 8.87 mln Sfr in 2012
By Katharina Bart
ZURICH, March 22 (Reuters) - Credit Suisse raisedthe pay of its chief executive by a third in 2012, a move likelyto stoke public and political anger over banker pay after a yearin which the Swiss group's profits fell and its shares stalled.
Brady Dougan, leading a drive to reduce risky assets,improve capital levels and cut costs, received 7.8 million Swissfrancs ($8.2 million) last year, the bank said in its annualreport published on Friday.
Anger at pay levels has already driven Swiss voters to backsome of the world's strictest controls on executive pay, forcingpublic companies to give shareholders a binding vote oncompensation.
European officials, emboldened by a victory to cap bankerbonuses, are expected to follow suit.
Credit Suisse's local banking rival UBS, which wasbailed out by the Swiss government nearly five years ago, drewfire last week when it disclosed a near $9 million 2012 payoutfor chief executive Sergio Ermotti and a $26 million welcomepackage for its new investment bank chief.
Credit Suisse said on Friday Chairman Urs Rohner's pay alsorose by one third to 5.2 million francs, while its top earnerfor the second year running was Robert Shafir, who was promotedto co-head of the newly merged private bank and asset managementunit in November.
Shafir's overall pay was 10.6 million francs, up from 8.5million in 2011. Shafir is also head of the Americas for CreditSuisse.
The bank's pay committee said the rewards were justified forthe progress made in restructuring the business.
However Brigitta Moser-Harder, an outspoken retailshareholder of UBS and Credit Suisse who successfully campaignedfor the Swiss pay curbs, condemned the rewards for Dougan,Shafir and Rohner amid a drop in Credit Suisse's profits.
"The questionable argumentation that the three did theirjobs very well shows once again that it's not effectiveperformance that is measured," she told Reuters.
Credit Suisse's net profit fell 24 percent to 1.48 billionSwiss francs last year and the bank kept its mostly stockdividend unchanged.
REFORMS AND REWARDS
Banks are generally taking a harder line on executive pay.
Deutsche Bank docked the pay of co-chiefexecutives Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen, for example, afterit was forced to restate earnings due to additional, unexpectedlegal provisions. Jain and Fitschen earned 4.8 million euros($6.2 million) each in 2012.
U.S. rival JPMorgan Chase, meantime, halved thebonus of chief executive Jamie Dimon after the bank sufferedhuge trading losses. His overall pay was $11.5 million lastyear.
Credit Suisse has also pledged to cap the bonus pool for itsnine-person top management team at 2.5 percent of underlying netprofit. Top management earned 74.1 million as a group in 2012,or roughly 2.1 percent of the profits.
"The wake-up call of the Swiss pay vote and the financialcrisis has heightened awareness on boards that excesses, inparticular in banking, cannot happen anymore," said Axel May,consultant with Zurich-based compensation advisory firmHostettler, Kramarsch & Partner.
However, the rewards are still handsome and it is unclearwhether the reforms taken so far will mollify public anger.
The head of Barclays' investment bank, Rich Ricci,this week sold more than 17 million pounds ($25.8 million) inshares he received in a long-term pay deal.
Dougan's pay package included a 500,000 franc unrestrictedcash bonus and 2.5 million in base pay, as well as short- andlong-term stock awards.
The chief executive sparked a storm of criticism in 2010when he received about 70 million francs in shares from a 2004stock-linked bonus plan and was awarded 19 million for 2009.
Part of Shafir's pay was a 1.87-million-franc share in thebank's private equity and hedge funds, meant to tie hisinterests with those of a wider asset management restructuring.
Shafir, who was granted a stake in alternative investmentfunds in 2008, could be set for awards of $10 million if thefunds achieve certain returns over their lifetime of up tofifteen years, according to footnotes in the annual report.
Barclays (BARC)
