Standard Chartered chief pockets bumper pay packet as London bosses call for more cash

The boss of Standard Chartered pocketed a bumper pay rise last year as his total paypacket swelled to £7.8m.

Bill Winters, the chief of the London-listed lender, saw his compensation climb 22 per cent last year from the £6.4m he made in 2022, according to the bank’s annual report released Friday. 

The payout is the biggest for Winters since he joined the bank in 2015, when his total remuneration was £8.4m.

The salary boost could add fuel to the debate surrounding salaries in London as ministers and bosses at the London Stock Exchange call for better compensation for bosses.

Last May, Julia Hoggett, the London Stock Exchange chief, called for a “constructive discussion” on paying executives that would bring the UK more closely in line with US salaries.

It was revealed this week that LSEG, the exchange’s parent firm, was mulling a bumper pay rise for its chief David Schwimmer.

Standard Chartered rival HSBC Holdings this week said CEO Noel Quinn’s total compensation also nearly doubled to £10.6m in 2023. 

Bonuses across the banking sector have been reined in however on the back of a slump in deals and widespread cost-cutting.

Standard Chartered’s overall bonus pool fell one per cent to $1.57bn in 2023, while salaries in 2024 rose by 2.2 per cent on average globally, lower than last year.

Shares in the bank have languished under Winters’ leadership and trade well below where they were when he took the helm in 2015. 

“The stock price is crap [but] we’re completely focused on addressing the shareholder concerns,” he said on a call today. “We are completely optimistic about our ability to continue to deliver on this plan.”