A latest survey by consultancy Mercer has suggested that following the financial meltdown, which led to the need of leaner compensation packages, majority of banks have hiked basic salaries and slashed bonuses for executives.

The survey surveyed 61 banks and other financial services firms and four fifths of the respondents said that they had made or were mulling to make changes to annual bonuses and short term incentives.

The survey showed that basic salaries have been increased by nearly 65 pct banks. Meanwhile, 88 pct cut the weighting of bonuses in their compensation mix.

Many are of the viewpoint that the main reason for the meltdown to occur was because banks rewarded excessive risk-taking with generous bonuses and fostered a short-term culture.

The survey found only 41 pct respondents who said that they had notably cut or removed one-year bonus guarantees for executives. The survey found 64 pct respondents who had done this for multi-year bonus guarantees.

"57 percent of respondents said they already had bonus caps or limited their bonus pools and 42 percent had got rid of golden parachutes, or guaranteed payouts to executives if they were fired -- a practice shown as more common among insurers than banks," forwarded Mercer.