Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the UK banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

Pay for the bosses of Britain’s biggest banks has soared to the highest level in more than a decade as share prices surge and ministers relax remuneration rules.

Charlie Nunn, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, was paid £7.4mn last year, a 20 per cent increase on the previous year and the largest payout in more than a decade for the bank. In 2015 Nunn’s predecessor António Horta-Osório took home £8.7mn.

Rival NatWest said in its annual results on Friday that it paid chief executive Paul Thwaite £6.6mn last year, up from £4.9mn in 2024, making him the lender’s best compensated boss since Stephen Hester was awarded £7.7mn for 2010.

The bumper payouts come as regulators dismantle a large part of the post-financial crisis settlement that saw the government take sizeable stakes in Britain’s biggest banks and more tightly regulate pay for their bosses.

There has also been a cross-sector push for FTSE 100 bosses to be paid more as part of efforts to attract top executives, many of whom are internationally mobile.

The median pay for FTSE 100 bosses was a record £4.58mn in 2024/25, according to the High Pay Centre.

NatWest returned to full private ownership in May 2025, 17 years after its £45.5bn taxpayer-backed bailout that left the government as the bank’s biggest shareholder. Lloyds was granted a £20.3bn bailout, giving the state a 43 per cent stake that was fully sold down in 2017.

CS Venkatakrishnan, the CEO of Barclays, which did not receive a taxpayer bailout, also saw his pay increase from £11.6mn to a record £15mn.

HSBC, the last of the UK’s big four banks, is yet to report its 2025 financial results. Its chief executive, Georges Elhedery, was paid £5.4mn in 2024.

Ministers have relaxed the rules around banker pay that were introduced after the 2008 financial crisis in response to public anger that many of those blamed for the crash had walked away with big payouts. 

Last October the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority, which regulates banks, announced that it would slash the time senior bankers must wait before receiving their full bonuses from eight to four years.

The changes mean that bankers can receive part of their bonuses within a year rather than having to wait three years. They will also be allowed to earn dividends on share-based bonuses while they are deferred.

The Financial Conduct Authority, which jointly regulates banks with the PRA, is also removing about 70 per cent of its pay rules from its handbook to avoid duplication.

Banking executives receive salaries, bonuses and stock-linked awards. The pay awards, therefore, also reflect the British banking system’s revival.

UK lenders have posted large profit boosts as interest rates have increased. NatWest on Friday announced a 25 per cent surge in pre-tax profits to £7.7bn in 2025, with its shares up almost a third over the past year.

Last year Lloyds posted a 12 per cent profit increase to £6.7bn in 2025. Its shares are up by 56 per cent over the past 12 months.