‘Pockets busting at the seams’ as latest multi-million banking bonuses revealed

The payout sparked fresh anger over bankers’ pay as it also emerged that Barclays boss Bob Diamond made £6.3m in 2011.

Lloyds Banking Group, Antonio Horta-Osorio is set to be awarded 9.6 million shares, worth £3.3m, which will also mature in three years, despite him turning down his bonus after taking sick leave.

The disclosures from three of the UK’s biggest banking groups – both RBS and Lloyds are backed by the taxpayer – left City investors deluged with information on pay and bonuses during the course of yesterday.

In the case of RBS, its annual report was released at 4pm.

The releases fuelled fresh anger that bankers are escaping the worst of the economic storm which is eroding the standard of living for ordinary families.

Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber said Mr Diamond’s award “epitomises how banks have failed the wider economy and got away with it”.

Mr Diamond is set to receive shares worth some £4.9m in three years on top of his £1.35m salary, despite a fall in the bank’s profits and it being among the banks hit by payment protection insurance mis-selling claims.

It also said that he pocketed £15.1m last year as previous employee benefit schemes bore fruit, while Barclays also footed a £5.7m tax bill racked up when he left the US to take the top job in the UK.

But he was not the highest paid member of staff at the bank for 2011.

Two other unnamed executives, thought likely to be Rich Ricci and Jerry del Missier, who jointly run its investment banking divisions, received total payouts of £6.7m and £6.5m.

The bank, which has already come under fire for not reducing bonus payments enough, has revealed that the average bonus for employees at Barclays Capital fell 30 per cent to £64,000, following a 32 per cent fall in profits at the arm.

At RBS, Mr Hester’s long-term incentive plan could be worth as much as £3.6m, although the bank’s calculations assume he is more likely to collect less than half of the maximum available.

John Hourican, RBS’s investment banking head, is set to receive shares currently worth £4.2m next month when a previous long-term incentive plan matures, while he also received a shares bonus of some of £2.5m for 2011.

The highest paid RBS banker for 2011 was US boss Ellen Alemany, who received a total package of £4.7m.

RBS chairman Philip Hampton said: “An inescapable part of commercial success is making sure that we attract, and keep, good, well-motivated people.”

Meanwhile, Lloyds, which does not have a large investment banking arm like most of its rivals, revealed that its highest paid member of staff, who was not named, pocketed £2.8m for 2011, while the biggest bonus award was 2.4 million shares, worth some £800,000.

Mr Barber added: “People are sick of seeing money that should be spent supporting businesses being lavished on the very people that brought our economy to its knees a few years ago.”

And David Hillman, a spokesman for the Robin Hood Tax campaign, said: “The pockets of Bob Diamond and his fellow bankers are busting at the seams from their multi-million-pound pay packets, whilst the Exchequer is being left short by the bank’s tax avoidance measures.”

Mr Diamond’s pay-out included a bonus of £2.7m, which was 80 per cent of the total entitlement and considerably less than the £6.5m he received last year.

The bonus was affected by the bank’s 3 per cent fall in profits to £5.9bn in 2011 and the payment protection insurance scandal.