THE taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group handed 25 of its staff £1 million or more in pay and bonuses last year.

The figure, which includes rewards for five employees who picked up in excess of £2m, means there were 769 bank staff in the £1m-plus pay bracket at the five big high street firms last year.

Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio was paid £2.5m in pay and deferred bonuses last year, and has also received £1.1m in shares from a long-term incentive scheme that will be released in 2016 subject to performance targets.

Despite £570m of losses in 2012, following on from more mammoth provisions relating to mis-sold payment protection insurance, staff still shared a £365m total bonus pot, equivalent to £3900 per employee.

Barclays has already revealed it paid 428 staff more than £1m last year, while there were 93 at Royal Bank of Scotland, 204 at HSBC and 19 at Santander.

The disclosures on pay have emerged because of new guidelines enforced by Vince Cable's business department.

Lloyds, which is 39% taxpayer owned, said its bonus pool was 3% lower than in 2011 while the average bonus per employee was the lowest of the main UK banks. The awards represent around 2% of revenues.

Cash bonuses are capped at £2000, with additional amounts paid in shares and subject to deferral and performance adjustment.