FORMER UBS executives have paid back or forfeited bonuses amounting to almost 70 million swiss francs (€45.2 million) as banks across the globe come under pressure to limit executive compensation after being bailed out by taxpayers.

UBS chairman Peter Kurer told shareholders at a special meeting to approve a SFr6 billion government bailout that the Swiss bank had received an extra SFr22 million in bonus waivers or repayments since the initial disclosures of SFr45 million revealed this month.

Other bank chiefs, including those at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, have agreed to forgo bonuses. Wall Street firms have also pledged not to use the recent $125 billion (€96.9 billion) cash infusion from the US government to pay bankers' bonuses.

Their gestures echo the sentiment among banking chiefs in Japan during its banking crisis in the 1990s when its 17 largest banks cut salaries and bonuses after a government bailout.

However, the UBS news comes just a day after it emerged that AIG, which has received more than $150 billion (€115.9 billion) in bailout financing from the US government, would still pay 130 managers "cash awards" to stay with the firm.

AIG disclosed the bonuses in a regulatory filing on the evening before Thanksgiving, a day when US markets are closed.

The insurer had previously said its seven top executives would forgo their bonuses for 2008.

Mr Kurer declined to identify which bankers at UBS were behind the latest payments.

Peter Wuffli, UBS's former chief executive, revealed two weeks ago he had decided to waive SFr12 million of payments due to him.