RBS boss, Stephen Hester, turns down $1.2m bonus
An employee of the Royal Bank of Scotland walks a long a corridor at the company headquarters at Gogarburn on December 12, 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In Britain, the head of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has turned down his shares bonus, worth £963,000, or $1.2 million, the BBC reported.
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RBS chief executive Stephen Hester was due to receive the controversial bonus on top of his normal salary, which is more than $1.5m – but renounced the payment amid a row over executive pay.
Trade unions and Britain’s opposition Labour Party had protested against the shares bonus, and called for a parliamentary vote.
British taxpayers have owned 82 percent of RBS since it was rescued by the government in 2008, at the peak of the global financial crisis.
Since the bailout, RBS has axed tens of thousands of jobs, Agence France Presse reported, adding that a bonus of £2 million Hester received last year seems to have gone unnoticed.
Hester’s decision to knock back the bonus, which the BBC said came amid “overwhelming political pressure,” was welcomed by both the government and the opposition.
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