£2m HBOS chief 'worst-paid banker'

JAMES Crosby, chief executive of HBOS, today claimed to be the worst-paid senior banker in Britain after revealing he received £2.17m in salary and bonuses last year and was given a £1.89m top-up to his pension pot.

'Of the chief executives of the top six banks in the UK, including Abbey National, James Crosby is the least well rewarded,' an HBOS spokesman said. That was despite achieving the best total shareholder return performance in the industry over the past three years.

Crosby's package, representing a 10% increase on last year, includes base pay of £737,000, a cash bonus of £310,000 and a £1.1m payout from a long-term share scheme.

The effective value of his pension scheme was boosted from £3.85m to £5.77m. Crosby, who is 47, is already looking at an annual pension of £426,000 when he retires. The pension boost was 'entirely in line with his salary increase and the terms of the pension scheme,' HBOS said.

The bank, the product of the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland, said it had delivered for shareholders - £1,000 invested three years ago in HBOS shares with dividends reinvested would have grown to £1,220. The same money invested in the FTSE 100 would have shrunk to £788.

HBOS revealed it had modified some aspects of senior executive remuneration because the old policy 'did not align in some respects with shareholders' expectations'.

The next highest-paid director, head of retail banking Andy Hornby, got £810,000 in salary and cash bonus, up from £680,000 last time. HBOS used five remuneration and legal firms to advise on pay. Brian Ivory, head of the board pay committee, was paid £91,000.

Part-time chairman Lord Stevenson's package was raised from £473,000 to £510,000.

Coining it at the top

How the other bank bosses compare:

Royal Bank of Scotland (Fred Goodwin) £3.45m +34%
HSBC (Sir John Bond) £2.1m +14%
Abbey (Luqman Arnold) £1.7m (first year)
Barclays (Matt Barrett) £4.9m +69%, including £990,000 pension fund top-up.