NatWest wants to increase its chief executive’s maximum pay by more than 40%, as the banking group prepares to return to full private ownership 17 years after it was bailed out by taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis.
While Thwaite’s new pay policy will have to be put to NatWest shareholders at its annual general meeting in April, pay campaigners say the return to a high bonus culture is not in the UK’s wider interests.
A model produced in the annual report shows that his pay package could soar to £9.5m if there was a 50% increase in NatWest’s share price – given much of the payout is linked to long-term bonuses made up of the bank’s own stock.
Luke Hildyard, the executive director of the High Pay Centre thinktank, said: “As memories of the global financial crisis dim, banks and big corporations are returning to the pay culture that sent inequality soaring and contributed to the collapse of the economy.
The high street lender, previously known as Royal Bank of Scotland, paid its chief executive, Paul Thwaite, £4.9m in his first full year in the role in 2024, shy of his maximum potential payout of £5.4m.
