(Bloomberg) – Natwest Group PLC investors have offered CEO Paul Thwaite a £7.8 million ($10.4 million) maximum compensation plan as lenders prepare the UK government to withdraw from its bailout era.
Thwaite said at the annual bank meeting on Wednesday that the speed of government shares sold “proves the performance of the business and helped us attract new global investors with shared ambitions for our growth.”
The CEO, who received a salary of £4.9 million last year, is now eligible for a larger performance-based stake reward, which accounts for 150% of his salary.
Thwaite took over Alison Rose in 2023 after the bank resigned after it decided to close the account of politician Nigel Farage.
Shareholders met at the lender Gogaben headquarters near Edinburgh, a venue for mid-to-high-paying conflicts in the years following the 2008 financial crisis. All resolutions were approved by shareholders on Wednesday with a 97.86% compensation policy, according to preliminary data announced at the meeting.
Natwest said in a previous statement from AGM that the decision by UK regulators to remove the bonus cap by the end of 2023 “provides greater flexibility to introduce higher leverage in exchange for more performance-based goals.”
Now the government accounts for less than 3% of NATWEST, selling most of its shares it acquired in a bailout of £45.5 billion in 2008. Since then, the group has renamed it from Royal Bank of Scotland, abandoning most of its overseas operations and re-concentrating it on domestic retail and commercial banks.
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