CSFB to Pay Average of $1 Million to Bankers

Credit Suisse First Boston, which lost nine members of its technology banking team in February, promised to pay an average of almost $1 million each to about 50 bankers in its California offices, a person familiar with the matter said.

The securities arm of Switzerland’s second-biggest bank guaranteed about $40 million in cash and stock to members of the tech banking team in San Francisco and Palo Alto, formerly led by Frank Quattrone, and some Los Angeles bankers who advise buyout firms and prepare leveraged loans and high-yield bond sales, said the person, who declined to be identified.

CSFB Chief Executive John Mack, 59, who cut a third of the firm’s workforce in less than three years, said in April that he was boosting pay as competition for bankers increased.

“There has been a lot more willingness to guarantee contracts to bankers,” said Alan Sklover, a partner at compensation consultant Sklover, Himmel & Bernstein in New York.

Mack declined to comment through CSFB spokeswoman Cristina Von Bargen.

Deutsche Bank hired the nine people from CSFB’s technology team in February. Quattrone, 48, had led the team until he left last year. He was convicted in May of obstructing justice during an investigation into initial public offerings.

The publication Financial News reported on the pay guarantees Monday.