Australian Bank Bosses Earn Combined $35 Million in 2008/09

Post by Sharat on November 17, 2009 · Under Australian Economy, Business News, Company News, banking · Comment

The bosses of Australia’s Big Four banking groups earned a combined $35 million in compensation during 2008.

Mike Smith CEO of ANZ was the best paid Australian banking chief in 2008/09, earning $10.9 million, whilst Westpac chief Gail Kelly, was the highest earning female Australian chief executive, taking home $10.6 million.

CBA chief, Ralph Norris took home $9.21 million, whilst NAB’s Cameron Clyne earned $5.2 million.

NAB and ANZ both released the details of their chief executive compensation plans in their annual reports, which were made public on Tuesday.

John Stewart, predecessor of NAB’s Cameron Clyne, earned $8.513 million in total compensation during 2008/09.

Mr. Clyne assumed the top job at NAB on January 1st 2009.

Despite taking a cut in salary, Mike Smith maintained his position as Australia’s best paid bank chief executive.

ANZ, which released its annual report on Monday showed Mr. Smiths total compensation for the 12 months ending September 30th valued at $10.935 million, which was down sharply from the previous year, when he was paid $12.963 million.

The Big Four banking groups are expected to charge their customers $4.5 billion in fees during 2009, despite having axed a number of charges this year, according to consumer watchdog InfoChoice.

“The irony of recent downsizing in exception fees is that customers doing the right thing receive no reward, as in most cases they would have avoided these fees anyway. Australians face a large and complex web of bank fees, with more than double the e fee categories than the UK. What’s worse, many bank customers do not even know that these charges exist, or are unaware that they apply to them.” InfoChoice CEO Shaun Cornelius said.

Australian banks charged their customers $4.8 billion in fees during 2008, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.

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