Building society boss pockets £3.4m fat cat pay cheque
CAMPAIGNERS have blasted the hypocrisy of Britain’s biggest building society after it paid new chief executive Joe Garner £3.4m.
The bonanza is comparable to payouts for FTSE 100 bosses and seriously undermines the mutual’s claim that it is different to City banks.
Nationwide has staked its reputation on being an alternative and wants to be seen as a trusted national treasure.
Garner, 47, is himself critical of City short-termism which puts stock prices above the needs of customers. But critics last night warned his stratospheric pay packet damaged Nationwide’s cuddly image and suggested it was just like every other lender. His whopping deal came as profits dived 17pc to £1.1bn.
Liberal Democrat MP and former business secretary Vince Cable said: ‘Nationwide is behaving like a typical aggressive commercial bank rather than a mutual. Plenty of very successful companies operate without the extreme levels of remuneration you see at Nationwide and elsewhere.’
Stefan Stern of the High Pay Centre said: ‘Nationwide does need to be very careful, considering it positions itself as the alternative to the big banks and high street banking. They want to be seen as boring and sensible, not like the others, so it’s very surprising to see them joining in the drive to ratchet up pay.’
Garner, who joined in April last year, pocketed an £840,000 base salary in the year to April 4, plus a £958,000 cash bonus and £336,000 pension allowance. He also got benefits worth £181,000 of health insurance, a car allowance and use of a driver.
This is an unusually high figure even by City standards, and more than the benefits paid to Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio. On top of this, the married father-ofone picked up a £1.1m golden hello. Garner earned just £6,000 less than Bill Winters, the boss of international banking giant Standard Chartered.
Nationwide has 15m savers and borrowers, has largely avoided the mis-selling and fraud scandals and is seen by customers as a trusted ethical lender.
It made a £1.1bn profit in its last financial year, down from £1.3bn. Nationwide sources acknowledged Garner’s earnings were high but argued it was important to pay for talent which would otherwise go elsewhere.