Rabobank is to stop paying performance-related bonuses for its board and almost all its staff and will freeze salaries until 2015, the cooperative bank said in a statement.

Nor will executive salaries be increased to offset the loss of a bonus, the bank said. According to the Financial Times, Rabobank is the first European bank in decades to make such a move voluntarily.

Rabobank had agreed earlier not to pay bonuses to board members in 2012 and 2013. The new pay and conditions deal for the bank’s 35,000 staff also includes an end to bonuses.

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The decision to scrap bonuses is ‘taking into account the views of our key stakeholders: our customers and members,’ said chief executive Wout Dekker in a statement.

‘In addition, we are responding to widely held public views regarding bank executives’ pay,’ the statement said. ‘The supervisory board has concluded that variable remuneration for our executive board is no longer compatible with the economic role Rabobank plays in Dutch society.’

But some 200 IT staff and traders will remain eligible for a bonus, the FT said.

The move comes ahead of new legislation planned by the Dutch government which will limit bonuses to 20% of annual pay.