Maria Ramos, the chief executive officer of Absa, South Africa’s biggest retail bank, has revealed that she would forgo her bonus due to the company’s poor performance in the year to December 2012.

Ramos, speaking at the company’s annual results presentation, which Ventures Africa attended, said: “I will not take any cash incentives for 2012.”

Analysts said this amounted to accepting blame for the bank’s poor showing in the past financial year.

On Tuesday, Absa reported a 9 percent drop in net profits in the full year to end December 2012. It attributed this poor showing to high credit impairments in its home loan and commercial property finance book.

When BD Live asked why she was taking a knock in her bonus for impairments as a result of home loan contracts signed between 2006 and 2008, Ramos said: “At the end of the day it does not really matter when it happened.”

She told BD Live: “What matters is we have to do the right thing. Last year’s results are what they are. I am not happy with them and the shareholders are not happy with them.”

Ramos reportedly refused to say whether other Absa executives would forgo their bonuses.  “The fact of the matter is, impairments have impacted (the company) in a big way … everybody has taken their fair share,” she said.