ROYAL Bank of Scotland has awarded RBS chief executive Ross McEwan a bonus worth £1.2 million less than a fortnight after the taxpayer-supported bank posted its ninth consecutive annual loss.
Papers show that Mr McEwan, has received 512,000 shares as part of a £5.9 million equity payout to nine executives despite slumping £7 billion into the red last year as part of a package of incentive awards.
The management team will also share new long-term awards worth up to £22 million which are due to vest between 2020 and 2024 if they meet performance targets. Mr McEwan, who has a £3.8m salary, would be eligible for a bonus of 1,188,800 shares worth £2.85 million.
The Edinburgh-based bank, which received a government bailout in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis and remains 72 per cent taxpayer- owned, has now racked up cumulative losses of around £58 billion since falling into state hands.
Last month, when RBS reported the latest round of losses, the bank’s chairman, Sir Howard Davies, had attempted to justify the need to pay bonuses by saying staff should not be penalised for the “sins of the past”.
A year ago, the management team were awarded bonuses worth £17.4m.
The newly approved payouts shed light on the bonuses to executives outside the boardroom, such as Chris Marks, the head of the investment banking operation, NatWest Markets, who was awarded shares worth over £820,000.
Other awards include £641,000 to chief administrative officer Simon McNamara, £439,000 to David Stephen, the chief risk officer, £366,000 to Les Matheson, the head of the high street banking business and £305,000 to Alison Rose, who runs the commercial bank.
It comes as RBS prepares to swing the axe on yet more branches and jobs. Last month, the bank revealed plans to cut a further £2bn in costs by the end of 2020 including £750m this year.
Although the bank has declined to give figures for job and branch cuts, union sources estimate as many as 10,000 jobs could go over the next few years.
RBS staff have already suffered heavily since the bailout with its headcount estimated to have been slashed from 180,000 employees in 2008 to 80,000 now.
The latest office cull in December, means that nearly 40 of its Scottish branches will have closed between May of 2015 and June of this year.
RBS has argued that it needs to pay bonuses to retain and motivate its best executives.
It also says the bonuses reflect improvements in the underlying profitability of the bank, excluding “legacy costs” that the current management team were not responsible for, such as litigation and toxic loans.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel