Commonwealth bank chief Ian Narev has become Australia’s highest paid banker with his annual salary working out to be $12.3 million for last year. Mr. Narev got 50% remuneration hike over last year after he was given shares worth millions of dollars in bonus due to the bank’s performance.
The bank released its annual report on Monday and reported an annual profit of $9.45 billion.
Mr. Narev’s weekly salary works out to be 236,000.
His salary includes $8.77 million base salary and performance-linked bonuses.
Some commentators have questioned a hefty pay rise at the back of a controversy involving the bank’s insurance arm CommInsure, in which it was alleged to have pressured the doctors to change the customer’s assessment to avoid payouts.
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Sam Dastyari, opposition’s consumer affairs spokesman raked up the CBA’s financial planning and insurance scandals to oppose Mr. Narev’s pay hike.
“Mr. Narev should be very pleased with himself, and there’s a long list of scandal victims (that I can happily provide him with) that he can share it with,” he told The Australian.
“Some of these people have been waiting for years for their compensation. I really do feel like we’re living in the 1980s film Wall Street.”
The bank passed only half of the recent cash rate cut to the consumers. Mr. Narev defended the move insisting the bank was taking care of all its customers, not just those with home loans. He told ABC’s 7:30 the difference between passing on the full cut would have been worth “low hundreds of millions of dollars”.
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Mr Narev defended not passing the latest cash rate cut on in full, insisting the bank was paying heed to listen to all its customers — not just those with home loans. He said savers were struggling with minimal returns in the low-interest environment.
Mr Narev told ABC’s 7.30 : “The reality is after our decision last week mortgage holders are paying less for their mortgage, depositors had the opportunity to get more, and shareholders are feeling safer about their $6 billion of dividend.”
