Anglo chief gets bonus of almost €1m

Anglo Irish Bank's chief executive, Mr Sean FitzPatrick, has received a once-off additional performance bonus of €952,000 (£750,000) to reward him for the bank's "exceptional" performance over the past five years and also for signing a new agreement to remain on as chief executive for a minimum period, thought to be three years.

Mr FitzPatrick would not comment directly on his remuneration, but sources within the bank said it reflected the fact that Anglo had far outperformed its peer group in terms of earnings growth in the past five years. The sources said that the "signing-on" part of the additional performance bonus was unlikely to be repeated when Mr FitzPatrick's new contract expired. Mr FitzPatrick will be 56 years of age when the new three-year arrangement expires.

The once-off "additional performance" bonus brought Mr FitzPatrick's total remuneration package last year to €2.1 million. This makes him by far the highest paid banker in Ireland last year, receiving more than the AIB and Bank of Ireland chief executives combined.

AIB's former chief executive, Mr Tom Mulcahy, received a €1.2 million package for the year to last December, while Bank of Ireland chief executive Mr Maurice Keane had a package of €863,000.

As well as the "additional" bonus, Mr FitzPatrick received a salary of €460,000, an annual bonus of €381,000 and a deferred bonus of €190,000. He also received a €135,000 contribution towards his pension, and benefits of €35,000.

In addition to the remuneration package, the dividends on his 3.5 million shares in Anglo were worth another €370,000.

Anglo's treasury director, Mr Tiarnan O'Mahony, received total remuneration of €751,000, while Mr John Rowan got €708,000, Mr William McAteer €672,000, Mr Peter Killen €653,000 and Mr William Barrett €642,000. When Mr FitzPatrick's once-off additional bonus is excluded from the calculations, executive director salaries at Anglo rose almost 17.5 per cent to just under €5 million.

The annual report also discloses that seven directors had loans outstanding at end-September totalling €10.4 million. The previous year, five directors had loans of €5.4 million. The bank states in its remuneration report that these loans are on "commercial terms".