ANGLO IRISH Bank paid senior staff members €1.2 million in deferred bonus payments and other contractual fees last year, according to unpublished figures.
Six executives received deferred bonus payments totalling €925,000 last year which were awarded prior to the bank being nationalised by the previous government in 2009.
In addition, four staff received a total of just over €296,000 “in lieu of committed remuneration arrangements” on their appointment to the bank. The payments were separate to their salaries.
These types of payments are typically made to new staff who lost bonuses or other fees from their previous employer as a result of moving jobs.
The Department of Finance had previously indicated that Anglo paid a much smaller sum – just over €270,000 – to five staff in deferred bonuses during 2010.
However, when different figures came to light during the summer, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan requested an urgent report on the matter from Anglo.
A spokesman for the department said it has since received a report from the bank and is satisfied that the different figures arose from the classification of payments, rather than any misrepresentation or omission of payments.
“The position still remains that no performance-related bonus scheme is in operation in Anglo since nationalisation in 2009,” a department spokesman said.
The spokesman added that all bonus payments were “contractual entitlements” and it was not envisaged that the bank will need to make any repayments to the exchequer.
A spokesman for Anglo Irish Bank also confirmed that the issue related to classification of payments and added that the bank no longer operates a performance-related bonus scheme.
“The bank has been and continues to be fully open and transparent in all its submissions to the department,” a spokesman said.
In addition to the payments made in 2010, department figures also show that a further contractual payment of €51,000 will be made this year to a newly appointed staff member “in lieu of a committed remuneration arrangement”.
Department of Finance briefing material acknowledges that the issue of bonuses is “particularly difficult” but defends such payments where they are in the “public interest”.
“On the one hand the public are scandalised that people in the banking world still receive bonuses for a variety of reasons while social welfare rates and public pay are reduced . . .” internal briefing material states.
“On the other side, the elimination of bonuses from all banking activities is not always in the public interest, ie, to hire an individual to complete a task with an incentive payment to do the best job possible in the shortest time to the benefit of all parties.
“What is required is to match risk with reward.”
