DIRECT Line chief executive Paul Geddes received Royal Bank of Scotland shares worth more then £350,000 last year as the part-nationalised bank honoured incentive payments dating back to his leadership of its insurance arm.
Mr Geddes's package for 2013 came to £2.4 million, 9% up on 2012 and more than double the 4% increase enjoyed by the company's average UK employee.
Direct Line's annual report disclosed that 69,509 shares from a long-term incentive scheme Mr Geddes was entered into in 2010 vested in April, when they were valued at £205,000. RBS's performance was taken into account when the award was assessed.
Mr Geddes retains shares in RBS incentive schemes from 2011 and 2012. If these awards vest, he will take them in Direct Line shares.
During 2013, Mr Geddes also saw the vesting of £152,000 of RBS shares awarded to him as deferred bonuses from 2011 and 2012.
Mr Geddes got a basic salary of £760,000 for 2013 plus an annual bonus of £835,000. He received long-term incentives of £622,000 including the RBS shares from the 2010 scheme.
Benefits of £23,000 included a car allowance, private medical and income protection insurance.
He also received pension contributions of £190,000.
RBS sold Direct Line, which was previously RBS Insurance and has brands including Churchill, as a condition of its £45 billion taxpayer bail-out in 2009.
Direct Line was listed on the stock market in October 2012. RBS sold the remainder of its holding last month, aside from shares retained to satisfy RBS incentive plans held by Direct Line executives, including Mr Geddes.
Direct Line is still using RBS's information technology systems. It warned in its annual report: "Migrating IT systems away from RBS Group introduces different operational risks; there is increased likelihood of system failure at the point that functions are moved on to new infrastructure.
"Further, if the migration fails to stay on schedule, we will incur charges for remaining on RBS Group IT infrastructure."
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