Fidelity may be cutting merit-pay eligibility and bonuses as part of other cost-cutting measures.

Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley confirmed to The MFWire that "potential adjustments" include:

"limiting this year's merit increase in July to employees with bonus opportunity of 15 percent or less";

"the possibility that annual profit sharing might be paid at a lower percentage";

and "the possibility that bonus funding may be less at the end of the year if business results are lower than last year."

"Fidelity is and has been ahead of the downturn in the financial markets and as a result is positioned very well for the future," Crowley said in an e-mailed statement to The MFWire. "While we cannot know when the economy will turn around, we will continue to recognize and reward the contributions that each individual and business unit makes."

"To ensure we continue to be positioned well to weather this storm in good shape, we are looking at other areas where we will be making some adjustments that we hope will be short-term," Crowley added.

Reuters' Ross Kerber (previously a Boston Globe reporter) and Svea Herbst-Bayliss, first reported on the news, citing an internal memo from Fidelity president Rodger Lawson.

"Overall bonus funding depends on our aggregate business results, which we expect will be somewhat lower this year than last," Lawson reportedly wrote in the memo. "Compensation [will be] proportionately less dependent on companywide metrics and much more dependent on the contribution of individuals and the performance of their business units."

Like other fund firms, Fidelity has already made a number of adjustments in the wake of the financial crisis (see The MFWire, 10/27/2008, 10/29/2008, 11/6/2008, 11/7/2008, 11/12/2008, 11/17/2008, 11/20/2008, 11/28/2008, 12/15/2008, 2/3/2009, 2/19/2009 and 3/22/2009). 

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