StanChart cuts bosses’ pension pay by £384,000

thE chief executive of Standard Chartered has finally agreed to halve his pension allowance following an investor revolt.

Bill Winters ( pictured) branded shareholders ‘ immature and unhelpful’ when they complained about an annual payment of £474,000 towards his retirement. But in an embarrassing climbdown, the 58-year- old has now agreed a cut to £237,000 –on top of his other earnings.

Last year he bagged a base salary of £1.15m, a bonus of the same amount, benefits worth £210,000, an annual incentive award of £1.39m and long-term incentives of £1.58m. this took his total pay for 2018 to £5.95m, although the new cut in pension contributions should bring his total fixed pay down by 8pc from now on.

andy halford, the chief financial officer, who was handed total pay of £3.65m last year, sees his pension contributions cut from £294,000 to £147,000.

Christine hodgson, chairman of the London-listed bank’s remuneration committee, said: ‘I would like to thank Bill and andy for their willingness to agree to these changes and to thank our shareholders and their representatives for engaging constructively with the remuneration committee.’

Standard Chartered acted after 40pc of investors voted down its pay policy this year.

Russ Mould, investment director at aJ Bell, said: ‘the company has been effectively poking an angry bear. First it tweaked the way it defined the pay of Winters and halford, so that a cut in the percentage of salary paid into their pension actually saw contributions go up. then Winters bit back at shareholders in July.’

Banks often say bosses need high salaries so they can attract the top talent. But Mould added: ‘this argument looks stronger when shareholders are also being richly rewarded, yet since Winters took charge in June 2015 it has posted a total return of minus 20.5pc.’

Consultants LCP found FtSE 100 firms give chief executives an average pension contribution worth 25pc of salary, while only 15pc pay them in line with workers’ rates.