guardian.co.uk,
Conal Urquhart, Jill Treanor and agencies, Saturday 28 January 2012
The RBS chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, who has given up his bonus. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi for the Guardian |
Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir Philip Hampton will not receive a £1.4m share award
because he had not meet the performance criteria attached to them when he was
first awarded them when he joined the bank in 2009.
Amid the
controvery over a near £1m bonus for chief executive Stephen Hester, it had been reported that the controversial share award would not pay out and on
Saturday: "Sir Philip Hampton will not receive the 5.17m shares he was
awarded in 2009 when he joined RBS."
While
Hampton had decided not to accept the award of 5.2m shares – which was handed
to him when he joined the bank in 2009 – it is understood that the conditions
attached to the potential pay out had not been achieved.
Hester is
receiving 3.6m in shares – worth just under £1m – but the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, urged the government to block the bonus for Hester. David Cameron
said the contract was arranged by the previous Labour government and should be
honoured.
Hampton is
thought to have told the bank's remuneration committee it would not be
appropriate for him to take the shares to which he is entitled. He was given
the scheme when he was appointed at the 83% state-owned bank as part of a
three-year long-term incentive deal.
It is
understood RBS were not due to offer Hampton the share bonus, based on a
variety of factors, until next month, but he chose to waive the entitlement
earlier.
His
decision is likely to put more pressure on Hester, who has faced calls from
unions, politicians and the public to turn down his award of almost £1m.
Speaking at
Chequers on Saturday, the prime minister said it was up to the chief executive
to decide whether to give up his bonus. "It's obviously his
decision," Cameron said. "My decision is to make sure the team at RBS
get on with the job of turning the bank round, and we made our views very clear
on the bonus and that's why it was cut in half compared to last year."
In a
statement on Saturday, Miliband encouraged the government to vote against the
bonus at the RBS annual general meeting in April.
"Freezing
the pay of a nurse or hospital porter while allowing a publicly owned bank to
pay million-pound bonuses, is the last nail in the coffin of this prime
minister's claim that we're all in it together," he said.
"Having
spent weeks boasting he would block bonuses, David Cameron refuses to explain
why he has changed his mind."
Related Articles:
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Ed Miliband calls on David Cameron to block RBS chief Stephen Hester's bonus
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Anger at further RBS bonus payouts
Ed Miliband calls on David Cameron to block RBS chief Stephen Hester's bonus
Goldman executives get access to restricted stock
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