Britain’s bank fat cats pocket £18m in a year

THE bosses of Britain’s biggest banks trousered £17.9m between them last year as profits rose across the industry.

Chief executives at Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland all raked in multi- million pound sums – despite another year of compensation pay-outs and fines.

The figures will spark concern that City pay remains out of control, more than a decade after big banks caused the financial crisis which almost blew up Western capitalism.

Luke Hildyard, of the High Pay centre, said: ‘It’s clear that pay is a key driver of corporate culture – and the culture of banks involved with PPI misselling, Libor manipulation, money laundering, tax dodging and a host of other malpractices was pretty rotten. ‘It’s hard to have confidence that the industry is really focused on serving the interests of wider society, as opposed to just enriching top bankers, when executives continue to enjoy such wildly disproportionate pay awards.’

The best-paid boss among the so- called Big four High Street banks was Antonio Horta-Osorio of Lloyds.

The 55-year- old pocketed £6.3m, down from £6.4m a year earlier, meaning he has now earned more than £50m since taking the helm in 2011.

Lloyds made a profit of £6bn last year, up 13pc on 2017. The lender set aside an extra £750m to compensate customers missold toxic payment protection insurance.

It has also been battling to refund victims of a £1bn fraud at the Reading branch of Hbos, which was bought by Lloyds in 2008. John flint, 50, of HSBC, was the next highest-earning chief executive.

flint took charge of the bank in february and was paid £4.6m for the remaining ten months of the year.

Profits at the lender climbed 15.9pc to £15.3bn.

Head of taxpayer-backed RBS, Ross Mcewan, 61, was given a £91,000 pay rise and earned £3.6m. RBS profits more than doubled to £1.6bn, in a year when it axed 431 bank branches – hitting rural and coastal towns across the country.

Bringing up the rear for pay was 62-year-old Barclays chief executive Jes Staley, who earned £3.4m, down £500,000 on the previous year because his bonus was docked after he wrongly tried to unmask a whistleblower.

The bank made a profit of £3.5bn, down 1pc on 2017. It shelled out £2.2bn for fines and compensation.