StanChart boss pay slashed 29%

CEO Bill Winters’ pay packet has been reduced to £3.8m

The CEO of Standard Chartered has seen his pay packet slashed by 29% with the bank reporting heavy profit falls due to the fallout from Covid-19.

This means chief Bill Winters’ pay packet for the year has fallen to £3.8m, with the salary of CFO Andy Halford experiencing a similar fall of 27%.

The bank stated this was “directly linked to the group scorecard outcome” following a 40% fall in annual underlying profits for 2020, with this figure slumping to $2.5bn.

Many senior executives within the financial services industry have had to accept reduced packages due to the crisis, with similar experiences at Barclays and Citi.

However, this is not the first time the remuneration of Standard Chartered’s top executives has received widespread attention.

In 2019, the bank’s management was criticised for attempting to introduce a revised remuneration policy, with claims it had been reduced by between 40% to 20%.

It was revealed that the actual underlying monetary amount was unchanged and the FTSE 100-listed firm experienced strong resistance from shareholders as a result. This was due to pension payments being calculated as a percentage of cash salary, rather than total salary.

Remuneration became a key issue for shareholders in the bank, 37.14% of whom withheld support for the policy. The board backed down and agreed to consult on changes to its remuneration policy in the months following the AGM.

Following the impact of 2020, bonuses across Standard Chartered have been reduced with the bank’s bonus pool shrinking by 23% to $990m.

However, in a bid to retain shareholder support, Standard Chartered has announced it will restore its dividend of 9 cents per share and is operating a $254m buyback. This is the maximum amount permitted under the Bank of England’s temporary restrictions