According to OCBC’s annual report, its CEO David Conner received S$7.48 million - his biggest ever paycheque - last year, an increase of 10% from 2009. Conner’s compensation package includes S$3.71 million worth of deferred shares and share awards, S$1.24 million in salary and fees and S$2.49 million in bonuses.
The bank achieved a 15% increase in net profit last year. It earned S$2.25 billion from S$1.96 billion in 2009 due to an increase in non-interest income from wealth management, and gains from trading and investment.
Similarly, CapitaLand reported last week that its CEO Liew Mun Leong was paid S$6.69 million in total for last year, an increase of 15% from 2009.
OCBC is the first local bank to disclose their top personnel’s pay packages for the financial year 2010. Local competitors DBS and United Overseas Bank (UOB) have not issued annual reports for last year.
However, based on their track records, these banks’ senior executives will most likely enjoy a pay rise. UOB chief executive Wee Ee Cheong had a 22% pay increase, drawing S$7.25 million despite bank profits falling by 2% to S$1.9 billion in 2009. UOB had posted the highest reported full-year profit by a Singapore bank at S$2.7 billion in 2010.
DBS, which posted a 20% drop in profit to S$1.63 billion, is unlikely to pay its top executives less. Its CEO Piyush Gupta was paid at least S$4.2 million for the financial year 2009 despite being hired for less than two months. Gupta had joined DBS in early November 2009. This amount was inclusive of Mr Gupta’s sign-on bonuses, DBS’ 2009 annual report stated.
As the annual report season gets under way, market observers are expecting higher CEO pay packages all round given that many companies reported higher profits for the year ended Dec 31 from a year earlier, as a sign of a turnaround from the economic recession.
