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Far from a bumper year for paying bank bonuses, 2012 is gearing up to be a bumper year for clawing them back. The spate of recent scandals in the sector - from the rigging of Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) and mis-selling of financial products to anti-money laundering failures and sanctions breaches – are prompting big banks to increasingly strip staff of awards they received for past performances that no longer look so favourable.

For UNI Finance and its affiliates, the focus on pay and bonuses should not only stay with the remuneration of top executives and traders but also with employees at all levels. Incentive structures for employees in sales and advice functions should encourage good customer services and qualified advice.The fixed part of the salary should be high enough to make a decent living and bonuses should be used to reward good performance and not exceed a 1 to 1 ratio to salary. Bonuses should also be based on long-term and sustainable business goals rather than short-term excessive revenues, and be discussed with trade unions through collective bargaining rather than individual case by case negotiations.

Formal “clawback” rules, which give banks the power to cut or cancel the portion of an individual’s bonus that has been awarded but not yet paid out, have been in place in the UK and Europe since 2009. In the US, regulators have pressed for similar rules to be included in the Dodd-Frank reforms, although these are yet to be finalised.

A number of big European banks – including HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland – have enforced clawback dozens of times in the past three years. Pay experts expect that number to rise sharply this year as boards attempt to convince investors they are taking tough action to deal with the recent failures.

Deutsche Bank has taken the clawback principle even further, recently becoming the first global bank to introduce rules that allow it to strip staff of bonuses earned at previous employers – a move that could be followed by other financial institutions. The largest European lender by assets has significantly tightened its bonus rules this year, enabling it to take back unvested shares that newly hired senior staff received in exchange for stock earned at another bank. Pay consultants said such a rule was unusual if not unique in the banking world but might well turn into a blueprint for rivals.

It comes as European banks, under pressure from investors, politicians and regulators, are stepping up efforts to hold employees accountable for illict or loss-creating behaviour by clawing back their bonuses more frequently.

UK banks including HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, have been among the most active users of clawback rules, which came into force in 2009.

Clawback rules allow banks to reduce or eliminate the deferred parts of bonuses that have not yet paid out. They can do so if the profits generated by an individual or division fail to measure up to expectations held when the award was made.

High-profile recent examples include JPMorgan Chase, the US bank, which clawed back bonuses from employees at the centre of a $5.8bn trading loss in the bank’s London-based treasury unit. Lloyds Standard Chartered, RBS and Barclays could also take back bonuses from senior staff this year following a string of public embarrassments.

Last month HSBC said it would consider reducing unvested bonuses that had been awarded to current and former senior executives following accusations that the bank handled money from drug gangs and helped finance repressive regimes.