RBS awards 10 directors a combined £3.5m

12th Aug 2014 21:15

Royal Bank of Scotland on Tuesday handed 10 directors share allowances worth £3.5m under a new plan by the bank to work around strict rules on bonuses.The award of just under 1.02m shares comes at a time when executive pay at the state-backed lender is surrounded by controversy, with taxpayers still at a loss from the £45.5bn bailout six years ago.RBS had pulled plans to pay directors bonuses of up to 200% of their salary after opposition from the Treasury earlier this year. However, the bank had warned that it was facing an "exodus of talented staff".New European rules mean that bonuses can be no higher than one times basic pay, or 200% with shareholder approval. However, share allowances do not count towards this cap.Share allowances are seen as different from bonuses given that they are not directly linked to financial performance and are instead role-based pay awards.The shares were awarded for the eight-month period ended 31 August and they can be vested in 20% portions each year for the next five years.The biggest allowance, of 154,241 shares worth £0.53m, was made to Rory Cullinan who is the head of restructuring.Meanwhile, deputy chief executive Chris Sullivan was awarded 134,961 shares worth £0.47m.Each director sold off just under half of the awarded shares to satisfy an associated tax liability, the bank said.BC