3,000 bankers earning over €100,000

Almost 3,000 bankers at the State’s four bailed-out lenders earn total pay of more than €100,000 a year.

Among those, 27 top bankers earn more than €500,000, new figures show.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan disclosed yesterday that 20 bankers at Bank of Ireland take home remuneration of more than €500,000 each a year.

The Irish Times revealed earlier this month that seven executives at Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC, formerly Anglo) earn total pay of more than €500,000 a year.

The new figures, released in a reply to a Dáil query from Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath, show 2,949 bankers earn more than €100,001 a year.

In the first like-for-like comparison across the four banks, the Minister said no one at AIB or Permanent TSB received total pay of more than €500,000.

Bankers earning between €400,001 and €500,000 totalled 21 at Bank of Ireland, AIB, IBRC and Permanent TSB, whose public bailouts stand at €64 billion.

There were 56 on between €300,001 and €400,000; 222 on between €200,001 and €300,000; and 2,623 earning €100,001 to €200,000.

The figures include salary, pension payments, benefits and allowances, including expenses relating to travel, accommodation, entertainment and car.

Bank of Ireland, whose €4 billion-plus bailout has left it as the only lender to avoid full Government control, had the highest number of staff earning more than €200,001.

The bank paid 10 people total pay of between €400,001 and €500,000. It paid 32 between €300,001 and €400,000 a year; 102 between €200,001 and €300,000; and 1,110 between €100,001 and €200,000.

The Minister said the bank estimated total pay by taking base salary and adding 26 per cent “as an estimate of potential non-salary benefits such as pension provision and allowances”.

Chief executives’ pay

Mr Noonan also set out the pay of the banks’ chief executives and the chief executives of the National Treasury Management Agency and National Asset Management Agency.

The highest-paid, Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher, earned €831,000. He was followed by IBRC chief executive Mike Aynsley on €663,000; AIB chief executive David Duffy on €488,750; and Permanent TSB chief Jeremy Masding on €460,000.

A further payment of €52,000 was made to Mr Masding to cover relocation costs, pushing his pay to €512,000, ahead of AIB’s Mr Duffy, whose salary is €425,000 after a 15 per cent pay cut.

NTMA chief John Corrigan earned €445,000 and Nama chief Brendan McDonagh €390,000, but pension payments were not disclosed.