Bonuses should be paid in bonds rather than in shares as is now usually the case, the Dutch central bank said on Tuesday in its half yearly review of financial stability.

According to the central bank, bankers who receive shares in their own bank are encouraged to take more risks. Company bonds would be less risky.

In the Netherlands, 44% of the bonuses paid out in 2013 consisted of shares and just 7% of ‘other instruments’, including company bonds. The rest was paid in cash money.

Shares have a ‘big profit potential’ while ‘extreme losses are paid for by others’, the NRC quotes the bank as saying.

With company bonds, ‘the potential profit and loss are more in balance which curbs the desire for taking excessive risk’, the bank said.