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You have to hand it to Credit Suisse. While bankers are being collectively described as cockroaches and Goldman continues to battle with cephalopod analogies, the Swiss bank is proving a master of public relations.

Fresh from a cunning scheme to pay last year’s bonuses in highly undervalued toxic assets, Credit Suisse has now stolen the mantle of being the first bank to attune its bonus structure to the G20’s new pay guidelines. According to an announcement on its website today, it will henceforth be raising salaries and deferring a large proportion of its bonuses.

Needless to say, this is nothing new. UBS raised its salaries ages ago. BofA/Merrill, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have all hiked their salaries too. And most banks defer bonuses over at least three years.

Credit Suisse has broken some new ground, however. From now on, it plans to limit unrestricted cash bonuses to a mere $100k (£60k). Above this, a variable proportion will be deferred.

The deferred portion will be split 50/50 between ‘Scaled Incentive Share Units’ (phantom shares vesting annually over a four year period, valued according to RoE, and with additional awards if an RoE hurdle is passed) and ‘Adjustable Performance Plans (phantom shares vesting annually over a three year period, also valued according to RoE, but linked into the performance of an individual’s business area and subject to a clawback if the business happens to be loss-making).

Fundamentally though, Credit Suisse’s reforms amount to little more than a belated salary hike and the introduction of a complex clawback and deferral scheme. But by making a big deal of it, the bank has earned valuable PR brownie points. It can also quietly bury its policy of paying in toxic assets, which - we are given to understand - will not be repeated.

Morgan Stanley beats estimates on higher investment banking fees. (Bloomberg)

The inequalities inherent in (Goldman) bonuses are for the good of us all. (DealBook)

The “incredible chasm” between Wall Street and Main Street’s perceptions on pay. (Financial Times)

"Anyone who proposed giving government guarantees to retail depositors and other creditors, and then suggested that such funding could be used to finance highly risky and speculative activities, would be thought rather unworldly. But that is where we now are." (BBC)

Volcker wants banks to split up too. (BaselineScenario)

Does Britain want still to be at the centre of wholesale finance or revert to largely domestic banking, as one suspects is Mervyn King’s instinctive preference? (Bloggers@ the Independent)

JP Morgan beats Goldman on M&A advice for the first time since 2000. (Bloomberg)

Jefferies – the bank that keeps on hiring. (Financial News)

Why Deutsche thinks it will do well. (Financial Times)

Deutsche Bank declines as preliminary numbers miss some estimates. (Bloomberg)

HSBC hires for its London oil and gas team. (Financial Times)

Who else has been hiring in London. (City Am)

How to deal with too big to fail. (Economics of Contempt)

There will be no suspended gardens at Citigroup. (Wall Street Journal)

Commerzbank wins a bonus case against Dresdner employees. (Bloomberg)