Santander (LON: BNC) have joined the long list of financial firms who have slashed the pension perks of their senior management teams.
Shares of Santander currently trade at 298p (-1.88%). 10/10/19 11:14BST.
The firm announced that UK Chief Executive Nathan Bostock will have his pension allowance cut from next year.
The bank has told shareholders that it will look at investor concerns to rein in senior management perks.
Bostock’s pension allowance, valued at £558k will be reduced from 35% of his base pay to 22% and to 9% in 2021.
This will equate to a cut of more than £400k across two years, following activism from shareholders to make these cuts.
He received a total pay package worth £6.4 million in 2018, including a final £1.8 million payment for share awards he gave up when he left Royal Bank of Scotland.
The move to cut pensions comes at a good time for Santander shareholders, and the firm has seen a positive few weeks of trading. At the start of November, Santander announced that they had invested into Ebury, which sent shares up.
Ebury is a trade and foreign exchange facilitator for small and medium-sized companies and have boasted impressive figures in their recent trading years.
Santander join rivals such as Standard Chartered who announced that they will cut the pension allowance for their Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer will be cut following discussions with shareholders.
Winters’s pension allowance will be reduced by 50% to £237,000 from £474,000, while Chief Halford’s pension allowance will also be cut by 50% to £147,000 from £294,000.
Barclays made a similar announcement saying that they will make similar strategic changes, in an update published at the end of November.
Finally, Lloyds Banking Group joined the movement when the global bank announced that they cut the pension allowance paid to Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio, by £228,000.
Horta-Osorio, the longest-serving of Britain’s top banking bosses, pocketed a contribution of around 419,000 pounds this year, equating to 33% of his £1.27 million base salary.
