RBS awards 10 senior executives £3.5 million in shares

Royal Bank of Scotland, UK’s largest government controlled bank, awarded 10 senior executives about £3.5 million in shares.

The largest payment valued at about £533,000 went to Rory Cullinan, who oversees the lender's bad bank, according to a statement today.

RBS in November reached an agreement with the UK government to create a unit to oversee about 38 billion pounds of its toxic assets. The shares represent a fixed share allowance for the eight months to August 31 for all except one executive, Edinburgh-based RBS said in the statement.

HSBC Holdings became the first UK lender to reveal its plans to mitigate European Union limits on bonus payments for more than 600 senior managers earlier this year.

Unlike other banks, RBS didn’t seek shareholder approval to pay bonuses of twice fixed pay as permitted under the EU rules.

UK Financial Investments, which manages the government’s 80 per cent stake in RBS, said it would veto such a proposal.

European regulators have been tightening compensation regulations to prevent a repeat of the risk-taking that helped spark the 2008 global financial crisis.

Banks are looking for ways to sidestep the stricter EU rules, which will apply to awards given in 2015, based on this year’s performance.

Bloomberg