StanChart boss given a £6.7m shares windfall

THE new boss of Standard Chartered has been awarded a £6.3m ‘golden hello’ to compensate him for bonuses he forfeited from his previous job, writes James Salmon.

Bill Winters was parachuted into the top job in June to turn around the struggling emerging markets lender amid a dramatic slump in profits, a falling share price, and a string of scandals.

Winters, a former senior executive of Wall Street giant JP Morgan, was poached from Renshaw Bay, a hedge fund which he founded four years ago.

The £6.3m shares windfall was revealed by the bank yesterday. In total the American was handed £6.7m in shares. This includes £413,000 from his fixed pay allowance.

These controversial awards are routinely handed to the highest paid bank executives to dodge a bonus cap introduced by Brussels last year.

From next year, Winters will receive an annual fixed allowance of around £800,000, topping up his annual salary of £1.15m, pension contribution of £460,000 and £35,000 in benefits.

Winters replaced long-serving chief executive Peter Sands, who quit as part of a major boardroom reshuffle.

Deborah Hargreaves, founder of campaign group the High Pay Centre, said: ‘These golden hellos are a waste of shareholder funds.

‘If it’s a job that you want why do you need £6m to go there? If he does a good job reward him at the end, not when he has barely started.’