Credit Suisse on Tuesday became the first big international bank to respond formally to regulatory demands to reform pay, with plans to increase the proportion of bonuses to its top earners paid over a period of years and reflecting their longer-term performance.

About 7,000 of the Swiss bank’s 47,000 staff were briefed about the new system, designed to reflect demands from the group of industrialised and developing countries as well as the Financial Stability Board and the Swiss regulator.