Panmure Gordon is asking its staff to relinquish their existing options packages in return for a new set of share awards, which the UK investment bank said would provide “positive incentivisation”, just months after the firm received considerable investment from a Qatari investment bank.

Employees in the UK and US are being asked to surrender options paid to them under Panmure Gordon's existing compensation programmes and instead accept new options that are to be tied to the future performance of the firm.