RBS in fresh row over pay

ROYAL Bank of Scotland stoked further controversy over pay yesterday after 110 of its top bankers were made euro millionaires in 2014.

Chief executive Ross McEwan received over £1million in salary, benefits and pensionPA

Chief executive Ross McEwan received over £1million in salary, benefits and pension

RBS, 79 per cent owned by the taxpayer after a £45billion bailout during the financial crisis in 2008, paid three bankers between 5-6 million euros each (£3.6million-£4.3million).

Its remuneration report showed that chief executive Ross McEwan, pictured, was paid £1.85million in salary, pension and benefits, while finance director Ewen Stevenson got £3.1million including a £1.9million "golden hello" after being bought out of his previous employer, Credit Suisse.

Former chief executive Stephen Hester, who was ousted in 2013, received a shares award that vested last year worth £858,847. The disclosures came a week after RBS posted a £3.5billion loss, its seventh consecutive year in the red since being rescued.

McEwan, who is forgoing his £1million bonus for 2015, said people were "quite right" to regard bonus payments to its staff, which amounted to £421million last year, as "outrageous".

The committee must balance the views of our stakeholders with our duty to reward our people fairly and our responsibility to ensure we are running a commercial business with the best available talent

Sandy Crombie, Chairman

The bonus pool had been reduced from the previous year's £588million to cover the rigging of foreign exchange markets and IT problems which had led to RBS being fined £56million. Sandy Crombie, chairman of the group performance and remuneration committee, said: "The committee fully appreciates the impact such events have on shareholders and customers."

He added: "The committee must balance the views of our stakeholders with our duty to reward our people fairly and our responsibility to ensure we are running a commercial business with the best available talent.

"RBS has been at the leading edge of reform in bringing down how much we pay and changing the structure of how pay is delivered."

Crombie said bonus pools had fallen by about two thirds across RBS over the past five years and by nearly 90 per cent within its investment bank.

The average salary for all RBS employees, according to the remuneration report, is £35,000, with 1,200 staff earning over £250,000.

Chancellor George Osborne has signalled his intention to sell the Government's stake in the bank "as quickly as we can" if he remains chancellor after May's general election.

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