Bank bosses get huge pay rises in sign top City salaries back to pre-crash highs
A trio of bank bosses have been given huge pay packets in the latest sign that the vast salaries and bonuses handed to Wall Street and City of London executives in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis have started to return.NatWest on Friday revealed a £6.6m pay package for its boss Paul Thwaite, marking the largest payout for a chief executive of the banking group since his disgraced predecessor Fred Goodwin took home £7.7m in 2006.That was 33% higher than his £4.
9m pay package for 2024.It also surpassed the £5.2m received by his predecessor Alison Rose for 2022, who Thwaite replaced in 2023 after the group’s row with Nigel Farage over what the Reform leader said was the discriminatory closure of his accounts.It means Thwaite is the highest-earning chief executive of the group since Goodwin, who was later blamed for bringing the bank to its knees, requiring a £45bn government bailout during the banking crisis in 2008.The government sold its final shares in NatWest in May.
Details of Thwaite’s pay deal came hours after the US lender Citigroup announced that its chief executive, Jane Fraser, had been paid a record $42m (£31m) for 2025,That included a $1,5m base salary and a $40,5m bonus, helping push her overall pay up by almost a quarter from $34,5m a year earlier.
Lloyds Banking Group also announced it had given its chief executive, Charlie Nunn, a 20% rise in pay for 2025 to £7.4m, which included £4.4m in bonuses.That was the highest sum in a decade.The bank – which received a £20.
3bn state bailout in 2008 after taking over the struggling rival Halifax Bank of Scotland – last handed a higher sum to the former boss António Hora-Osório in 2015, then worth £8.7m.Lloyds returned to private hands in 2017.Asked whether it was appropriate for his own pay to be returning to pre-financial crisis levels, Thwaite told reporters he was very proud of what NatWest had achieved over the past couple of years.“The first thing I’d say is that I recognise that senior roles in financial services, in banking and actually in wider professional services, are very well paid.
I appreciate that,I know that; I believe I’m very fortunate, and it would be churlish for me to suggest otherwise,” He added: “The exec pay policy is set by the board,It’s voted on by shareholders,There’s obviously a very close link between reward and performance.
And it goes up and down depending upon performance.So that’s all I’ll say on that, really.”Thwaite’s earning power was not only bolstered by the bank’s privatisation but also by a decision last year to lift the banker bonus cap that had limited his bonus to twice his salary.It followed a UK-wide reversal of the cap as part of post-Brexit powers that politicians, including the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and regulators hoped would lure more high-earning bankers to Britain’s shores.Lloyds is following suit, proposing a new pay policy for Nunn this year, which could result in him earning up to £17.
7m if share prices continue to climb.On top of Thwaite’s £1.1m salary, a “fixed share allowance” of £1.1m, and pension payments and other benefits, Thwaite was given a £4m bonus.That included an annual bonus of £1.
5m, up 68% from £890m a year earlier,The rest was linked to a long-term bonus scheme, which paid out £2,5m for 2025,The jump came as NatWest reported £7,7bn in pre-tax profits for 2025, a 24% rise on the £6.
2bn reported a year earlier.The lender also increased payouts for its top bankers, lifting the group bonus pool by 10.8% to £495m, according to its newly released annual report on Friday.That is the highest level since 2013, when the financial crisis bonus pool still hovered at about £576m.NatWest’s annual report also disclosed that 89 “material risk takers” earned more than €1m (£870,000) in 2025.
The bank said 20 of these earned between €1.5m and €2m, while 14 earned more than €2m.The lender employed 59,000 permanent staff in total at the end of last year.Lloyds announced a £405m bonus pool, its highest since 2023, while its UK rival Barclays has also given bankers the largest bonus pool in 12 years.It revealed its bankers would be sharing £2.
2bn worth of bonuses for the 2025 financial year, marking a 15% increase from £1.9bn last year.It comes after Barclays revealed a 13% rise in full-year profits on Tuesday to £9.1bn.
Penalty notice: Euro Car Parks fined £473,000 for ignoring regulator
Euro Car Parks is infamous for dishing out fines but the private parking company has been hit with an almost £475,000 penalty of its own after it failed to hand over information to a regulator.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had imposed a £473,000 fine after the company did not respond for three months to seven requests for information, including by registered post, email and hand-delivered letter.It is the first time the CMA has issued a penalty under the new fining powers it was given in 2024.The regulator sends out “information notices” to companies when deciding whether to open an investigation, and businesses have a legal obligation to comply.The CMA said Euro Car Parks, which provides payment systems in car parks, only responded after it raised the spectre of a fine
US inflation falls to 2.4% in January after Trump’s tariffs led to price fluctuations
US inflation moderated in January to 2.4%, an easing after Donald Trump’s tariffs triggered price fluctuations last year.Prices rose 0.2% from December to January, according to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday measuring the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the price of a basket of goods and services. Core CPI, which strips out the volatile food and energy industries, went up 0
Share values of property services firms tumble over fears of AI disruption
Shares in commercial property services companies have tumbled, in the latest sell-off driven by fears over disruption from artificial intelligence.After steep declines on Wall Street, European stocks in the sector were hit on Thursday.The estate agent Savills’ shares fell 7.5% in London, while the serviced office provider International Workplace Group, which owns the Regus brand, lost 9%.The UK’s two biggest property developers, British Land and Landsec, dropped 2
Elon Musk posted about race almost every day in January
Elon Musk’s longtime fixation on a white racial majority is intensifying. The richest man in the world posted about how the white race was under threat, made allusions to race science or promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days in January, according to the Guardian’s analysis of his social media output. The posts, made on his platform X, reflect a renewed embrace of what extremism experts describe as white supremacist material.“Whites are a rapidly dying minority,” Musk said on 22 January, a short time before taking the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, while reposting an Irish anti-immigrant influencer’s video about demographic change.Musk’s posts included him repeatedly claiming white people face systemic discrimination, endorsing the conspiracy that there is an ongoing genocide against white people in countries around the world and promoting a claim that white people would be “slaughtered” by non-whites if they become a demographic minority
Salt calls on England to play with ‘chests out’ in crunch T20 World Cup clash with Scotland
It turns out England’s self-confidence might be a bit more resolute than their batting. It will take more than a couple of teetering performances to set this team’s morale atremble. So despite being nervy against Nepal and wobbly against West Indies, England could hardly have been more cocksure on the eve of a crucial T20 World Cup group fixture against Scotland. As Phil Salt put it: “When we’re at our best nobody can live with us.”England arrived in India having lost once in 11 T20 games over the previous 12 months, and that run continues to be a source of belief
Charlotte Bankes rues cruel nature of snowboard cross as dreams dashed again
Few sports at the Winter Olympics are more thrilling or turbulent than snowboard cross. The idea is simple. Four competitors, a steep mountain, ramps, and whoever gets down quickest to the bottom first wins. But jeopardy lurks on every sharp turn and steep bank. And calamities are an unfortunate fact of life
Children’s vocabulary shrinking as reading loses out to screen time, says Susie Dent
‘We’re on a cliff edge’: the struggle to keep youth services alive in Knowsley
Parents of children taken in to care should get more help, say experts after Victoria Marten death
One in 14 children who die in England have closely related parents, study finds
Reading and writing can lower dementia risk by almost 40%, study finds
Psychiatric drugs aren’t always the answer | Letter