The data from annual reports was meant to be supplemented with a questionnaire since relevant information for our thesis was not found in the annual reports. We called about twenty banks to introduce us and inform them we will send out a questionnaire about CEO compensation, options, incentive programs and other information that measures true performance. After having spoken to a large number of banks we realized that many of them could not help us, either because they could not reveal the date asked for, or because lack of time when it came to answering the questionnaire. Sending out the questionnaires would mean we would have received a low response; therefore this could not be used for the purpose of this thesis. The number of banks was approximately reduced by half.
The data was successfully collected for a total of twelve banks. It was collected from annual reports and other statements from each bank for the three consecutive years, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Gathering this data was a very time consuming process and therefore it was better to limit our research to 12 firms, involving Swedish and foreign banks with business in Sweden.