Lloyds to Cut Chief Executive Horta-Osorio’s Pension Award

(Bloomberg) --

Lloyds Banking Group Plc is trimming the pension payout the lender hands to Chief Executive Officer Antonio Horta-Osorio in line with rivals, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Britain’s largest mortgage lender is expected to cut its boss’s pension contributions by about half as it looks to raise the pay of its employees, the person said, declining to be identified because the information is not yet public. Horta-Osorio currently receives a pension allowance equivalent to 33% of his salary, compared to an average of 13% for the rest of the bank’s staff.

The bank intends to hand all its staff pension contributions worth up to 15% of their base salary, a move that will reduce the annual allowance paid to Horta-Osorio by more than 200,000 pounds ($256,780), the person said. Horta-Osorio was paid more than 6 million pounds last year. The Financial Times first reported the news.

“We are consulting shareholders on all elements of the policy including pension allowances,” according to a statement from the bank. The bank “will continue to support the guidelines set out by the Investment Association and, once approved by the board, the proposed new remuneration policy will be presented to shareholders for approval” at the annual general meeting.

Any move by Lloyds to reduce its chief executive’s pension contributions would mirror similar actions at other major U.K. banks that have come under pressure to reduce the allowances they pay their senior managers.

This month, Standard Chartered Plc said it would halve the pension contributions it paid to CEO Bill Winters, as well as the bank’s Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford, to 10% from 20% of their annual salary.

To contact the reporter on this story: Harry Wilson in London at hwilson57@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Patrick Henry

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