CEOs of Big 5 banks see increases with $63.2 million in total pay

The chief executives of TORONTO Canada’s five largest banks collectively earned roughly $63.2 million in total compensation during the 2018 financial year, up about 12 per cent from the previous year.

Based on the banks’ latest proxy circulars, Toronto-Dominion Bank’s chief executive Bharat Masrani received the highest overall pay for the 12 months ended Oct. 31, 2018, at $15.3 million in total compensation, which includes elements such as base salary, performance-based incentives and pension value. That’s up roughly 23 per cent from Masrani’s $12.4 million in total compensation for the 2017 fiscal year, marking the biggest annual pay bump among the five bank chiefs.

The second-highest paid banking chief executive was Royal Bank of Canada’s Dave McKay, who saw an eight-per-cent pay increase to $14.5 million in total compensation, followed by Bank of Nova Scotia’s Brian Porter, who received $13.3 million, up 3.2 per cent from the previous year.

The Bank of Montreal’s chief executive Darryl White received $10.1 million in total compensation in his first full year at the helm, up 22 per cent from fiscal 2017.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s chief executive Victor Dodig received roughly $10 million in total compensation in the 2018 financial year, up 6.5 per cent from a year earlier.

Excluding pension value and other miscellaneous compensation items, the five bank CEOs earned roughly $54.7 million in total direct compensation, up roughly 6.5 per cent from the 2017 financial year.

The increase in compensation reflects the complexities in the financial sector, said Bill Vlaad, president of financial services recruitment firm Vlaad and Co., which also monitors compensation trends.

The banking sector employs tens of thousands of people and each of the five financial institutions has a growing international presence, he said. As more Canadians do their banking digitally, these banks are deploying more complex technology, Vlaad added.

“There’s a lot of pressure on these CEOs, more so than for a traditional CEO of an operational company,” he said.

“I think that justifies a great deal of their compensation.”

The Big Five banks saw a collective $43.2 billion in net income for the 2018 financial year, up nearly 7.2 per cent from the prior year.