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By Hilton Tarrant

Moneyweb: Columnist


Best-paid big five bank execs

Seven were paid over R20 million just in short-term bonuses last year.


Barclays Africa Group (soon to be renamed Absa Group) CEO Maria Ramos is the top-paid executive among the big five banking groups. In 2017, her remuneration totalled R61.9 million, comprising the R29.9 million in fixed and variable remuneration as well as the R32 million in restricted share award (RSA) and long-term incentive plan awards made during the year.

However, Barclays Africa and FirstRand use a different methodology from the other three banks (Standard Bank, Nedbank Group, Capitec Bank). They disclose the value of long-term incentives awarded during the year, versus the other three which disclose the awards which vested in 2017. Either could be argued as “accurate”. Investec is deliberately excluded from this comparison as remuneration is in pounds, which skews it dramatically (after conversion).

On a ‘single figure’ basis, Ramos was paid a total of R37.5 million, comprising her fixed remuneration, non-deferred short-term incentives plus payments from those short-termincentives previously awarded. Barclays Africa Group excludes any long-term incentives from its disclosure.

Remuneration for executives is comprised of the following, and disclosed accordingly:

  • Fixed remuneration (salary and benefits)
  • Short-term incentives (generally cash and share-linked deferred awards)
  • Long-term incentives (share options, share appreciation rights, restricted share plans, etc)

Remuneration is disclosed for executive directors and (what banks define as) prescribed officers.

Capitec Bank CEO Gerrie Fourie, whose remuneration is heavily skewed towards long-term incentives, received a total of R56.6 million in the year to end-February 2018. Of this, R41.6 million is the value of share options and share appreciation rights which will vest this year based on performance in the 2018 financial year.

Taking into account long-term incentives awarded in 2017, Ramos was paid R7.5 million more than David Hodnett, Barclays Africa Group deputy CEO, who is on a two-month sabbatical following a reorganisation of the group into four units earlier this month.

FirstRand CEO Johan Burger, who retired on March 31 2018, was paid a total of R53.89 million in the year to June 30 2017. This included R18 million in long-term incentives awarded during the year.

When considering short-term incentives (whether cash or deferred), seven of the 27 executive directors and prescribed officers at the big five were paid R20 million or more in the most recent financial year. It is no surprise that these seven, plus Ramos and Hodnett, are the nine best-paid executives when only looking at guaranteed pay plus short-term incentives.

‘Only’ four executives (Barclays Africa’s Ramos, Hodnett, Peter Matlare as well as Capitec’s Fourie) have fixed remuneration, i.e. guaranteed take-home pay, of over R10 million per annum.

Guaranteed package (CTC) Short-term incentive Long-term incentive* Total
Maria Ramos Barclays Africa Group CEO R14.959m R15m R32m R61.959m
Gerrie Fourie Capitec Bank CEO R10.954m R4.049m R41.641m R56.644m
David Hodnett Barclays Africa Group deputy CEO R12.009m R14.5m R28m R54.509m
Johan Burger1 FirstRand CEO R9.740m R25.8m R18.350m R53.89m
Sim Tshabalala Standard Bank Group CEO R9.103m R25.4m R14m R48.503m
Ben Kruger Standard Bank Group executive director R9.079m R24.95m R12.5m R46.529m
Peter Schlebusch Standard Bank Group CE PBB R6.950m R27m R10m R43.95m
Alan Pullinger1 FirstRand deputy CEO R7m R21.2m R14.63m R42.83m
André du Plessis Capitec Bank CFO R8.247m R3.118m R30.228m R41.593m
David Munro2 Standard Bank Group CE CIB R2.844m R13.1m R25m R40.944m
Peter Matlare Barclays Africa Group deputy CEO R10.009m R10m R19.5m R39.509m
Mike Brown3 Nedbank Group CEO R8.175m R13.75m R16.199m R38.124m
Brian Kennedy3 Nedbank Group ME CIB R4.571m R16.75m R14.928m R36.249m
Kenny Fihla4 Standard Bank Group CE CIB R4.015m R20m R10m R34.015m
James Formby1 FirstRand – CEO, RMB R3.241m R22.5m R7.5m R33.241m
Arno Daehnke Standard Bank Group FD R5.697m R16.75m R10m R32.447m
Jacques Celliers1 FirstRand – CEO, FNB R6.751m R12m R11.943m R30.694m
Nomkhita Nqweni Barclays Africa Group CE: WIMI R7.509m R6m R17m R30.509m
Jason Quinn Barclays Africa Group FD R5.309m R8m R17m R30.309m
Margaret Nienaber Standard Bank Group CE Wealth R5.517m R14m R10m R29.517m
Mfundo Nkuhlu3 Nedbank Group COO R5.452m R8m R12.289m R25.741m
Harry Kellan1 FirstRand FD R6m R8.5m R8.6m R23.1m
Chris de Kock1 FirstRand – CEO, Wesbank R4.703m R8.5m R9.2m R22.403m
Raisibe Morathi3 Nedbank Group CFO R4.87m R8.25m R8.639m R21.759m
Ciko Thomas3 Nedbank Group ME RBB R4.469m R8.25m R5.266m R17.985m
Iolanda Ruggiero3 Nedbank Group ME Wealth R3.705m R5.25m R3.897m R12.852m
Nkosana Mashiya Capitec Bank executive director R4.042m R1.523m R5.094m R10.659m

For FirstRand and Barclays Africa, this is the value of long-term incentive plan awards madeduring the year. For Standard Bank, Nedbank and Capitec, this is the value of long-term incentives vesting (within the next 12 months) based on performance in 2017.

For the year to 30 June 2017

Remuneration for five months (to 31 May 2017)

Includes long-term incentives, matched shares, dividends

Remuneration for six months (from 1 July 2017)

The best paid CFO or financial director is Capitec’s André du Plessis, but this is skewed by the R30 million in long-term incentives which will vest this year based on performance in the 2018 financial year.

Standard Bank’s Arno Daehnke and Jason Quinn of Barclays Africa Group were both paid over R30 million in the year, while FirstRand’s Harry Kellan and Nedbank’s Raisibe Morathi were paid over R20 million.

The best-paid prescribed officer is Peter Schlebusch, the chief executive for personal and business banking at Standard Bank, who stepped down on March 31. He was paid R44 million, of which R27 million comprised short-term incentives (R14.85 million is share-linked and deferred).

All four executives running corporate and investment banking divisions earn over R30 million a year (this double counts David Munro and Kenny Fihla at Standard Bank as both headed CIB in 2017). Barclays Africa’s CIB unit continues under co-chief executives, Temi Ofong and Mike Harvey, who are not on the executive committee (Exco) and report directly to Ramos.

Hilton Tarrant can still be contacted at hilton@moneyweb.co.za.

He owns shares in FirstRand, first purchased in July 2011.

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