Barclays and RBS disclose number of staff paid £1m-plus

A total of 428 employees of Barclays and 93 at RBS earned more than £1m last year, the banks have disclosed.

Five members of staff were paid more than £5m, Barclays said, but this did not include the chief executive, Antony Jenkins, who received £2.6m.

At RBS, total pay for top directors and eight executives was £21m, which the bank said was 16% down on 2011.

Many banks have become more transparent on pay, but the figures are still likely to be controversial.

The banks have been hit by scandal, including attempts to rig the Libor interest rate and the mis-selling of payment protection insurance.

The Libor scandal led to the resignation of Barclays' previous chief executive, Bob Diamond, and chairman Marcus Agius in July.

Barclays' new management team has pledged to address the "aggressive" culture at Barclays and improve accountability.

Top earners

The pay details released in Barclays' annual report include salaries, bonuses and the value of long-term share awards given to all of the bank's 145,000 staff.

Among the top earners, 50 people were paid between £2.5m and £5m last year, while a further 373 were paid between £1m and £2.5m.

The chief executive of RBS, Stephen Hester, waived his bonus, but his total package for the year was worth £3.27m, including basic salary, plus benefits and shares awarded under a long-term incentive plan.

RBS disclosed that one of the bank's most senior executives earned £4.8m, including long-term incentive shares which will pay out if certain future targets are met.

Its annual report also showed that of the 93 employees in the millionaires' club, 36 earned between £1.5m and £5m and one was paid more than £5m.

The average salary across RBS, which is 82%-owned by the UK taxpayer, was £34,000.

Penny Hughes, chair of RBS's remuneration committee, said the committee had "spent a great deal of time challenging and taking action in response to past events and considering how remuneration can help to drive appropriate behaviours at RBS in future".

Transparent

However, Labour MP John Mann criticised the payouts. "It's one rule for bankers and another rule for every other part of British industry. There will be a lot of angry small businessmen out there tonight," he said.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the additional information on pay provided in the annual reports was a positive development. "This type of disclosure allows shareholders to properly hold institutions to account for how they pay their staff," he said. "This government is committed to ensuring that the UK has the most transparent banking sector in the world."

Earlier this month, another major bank, HSBC, gave details of the amounts it had paid its top earners last year.

HSBC's 16 top executives received an average of £3.25m each.

Globally, 204 HSBC employees were paid more than £1m last year, of which 78 were in the UK, where the group has its headquarters.

This story was corrected on 9 March 2013 to reflect the fact that Marcus Agius chose to resign in July 2012 over the Libor scandal.