Royal Bank of Scotland’s head of investment banking, John Hourican, will receive almost £7.5 million in pay, bonus and shares for last year. The move is likely to fuel further fury about the size of payouts at the majority taxpayer-owned bank.

The Irish banker Mr Hourican will next month receive 15.9 million shares, worth £4.2 million for a three-year award that ended last year. The bank’s annual report revealed the pay for its top executives, which showed the highest paid – Ellen Alemany, head of its US business Citizens – could get £4.7 million in pay, bonus and long-term award for 2011.

The second-highest paid, Mr Hourican, got a £751,000 salary and a £2.5-million bonus for 2011, taking his pay for the year to £7.5 million. Mr Hourican, who was appointed in 2009 to run RBS’s troubled investment banking arm after the collapse, is highly regarded by fellow bankers and is credited with leading the slimming-down of RBS’s dangerously exposed balance sheet.

RBS did not name the executives itself, but they can be identified by their disclosed salaries. – (Reuters)