Standard Chartered boss raked in £3.5m last year as firm's profits slumped 30%

• e-mail

Standard Chartered faces a clash with investors after handing one boss £2.7million last year towards his pension.

The struggling bank’s annual report showed the outgoing chief executive Peter Sands was paid £3.5million last year, despite forfeiting his bonus after profits slumped 30 per cent. 

Although his total pay fell from £4.6million in 2013, his basic salary was hiked from £1.1million to £1.2million, triggering a huge increase in the bank’s annual contribution to his pension from £589,000 to £1million.

Wealthy: Standard Chartered boss Peter Sands was paid £3.5million in 2014, while the firm's profits slumped 30 per cent

He also received a £741,000 fixed shares allowance, introduced by banks last year to dodge the EU bonus cap. Sands’ deputy Mike Rees also gave up his bonus, which was £4.4million in 2013 – prompting his pay package to fall from £6.4million to £4.7million.

But his basic salary was increased from £775,000 to £1million, which helped boost his pension contribution from £348,000 to £2.7million.

The bank also revealed that the number of people paid more than €1million (£710,000) last year rose from 118 to 130.

Deborah Hargreaves from the High Pay Centre said: ‘A lot of ordinary people will be bemused as to why these people should get multi million pound awards for failure.’

Making changes: Peter Sands will be replaced by veteran US banker Bill Winters in June, as part of a boardroom clear-out at Standard Chartered

Sands will be replaced by veteran US banker Bill Winters in June, as part of a boardroom clear-out.

As well as its spluttering performance, which has led to thousands of job cuts, the bank (up 1.1p to 956.3p) has been mired in scandal and was fined in the US for sanctions busting and money laundering failures.