27/01/2012

RBS Boss Awarded £936,000 Bonus

The Board of The Royal Bank of Scotland has confirmed it is to award its Chief Executive with a £936,000 bonus, despite a disastrous year.

The bailed out bank, whose board is controlled by the taxpayer, announced on Friday morning that Group Chief Executive Stephen Hester would be offered the six figure sum as approved at the Annual General Meeting by 99.2% of shareholders.

The move has been strongly criticised with Labour's Chuka Umunna accusing the Government of failing to rein in excessive bonuses.

“Ministers have spoken of the need for greater shareholder activism but despite the Government being the largest shareholder in RBS, have failed to rein in excess. People will not be able to understand why, at a time when they are facing the biggest squeeze on their incomes in a generation, the Prime Minister has failed to act despite his promises to do so.

"The Deputy Prime Minister, Prime Minister and others have tried to suggest that the bonus framework was set by the last Labour government which is simply untrue. RBS has been very clear that the remuneration committee of the board of the bank had discretion in this case."

RBS said its Board had decided to allocate Stephen Hester the annual performance award of 3.6 million shares from the Share Bank award set aside for him in 2011. This represents £963,000 based on the closing price on Wednesday when the decision was taken.

"The award will be made entirely in shares that are deferred and subject to holding conditions that mean that their full value cannot be received until late 2014," the bank said. The spokesman added: "Only then can their tangible value be established. This ensures complete alignment of the Chief Executive's interests with those of our shareholders."

(DW)

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