RBS chairman says Hester’s pay is low in comparison to top businessmen
03 February 2012 at 14:24
The chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has claimed Stephen Hester’s pay is low in comparison to top businessmen.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Sir Philip Hampton told presenter Evan Davis that the chief executive’s pay was high in “absolute terms” but maintained it was not without merit.
He said: “Although their [RBS bankers’] pay is very high in absolute terms, in relative terms to bankers and indeed top businessmen, it’s not particularly high by most measures in fact it’s quite low.”
The comments come just days after the Financial Services Authority’s chief executive Hector Sants claimed the regulator had no jurisdiction to block the RBS takeover of ABN Amro, which is believed to have proliferated the economic downturn.
Although Mr Hester turned down a share bonus worth just under £1 million earlier this week, Sir Philip said the bank “underestimated the scale of the public reaction to the bonus”.
Posted by James Harrison