LONDON (Reuters) - State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (LONDON:RBS) paid 110 staff more than 1 million euros (729,800 pounds) each last year including three paid between 5 million and 6 million euros, it said on Friday, risking a political backlash.
The payouts were made despite RBS last week saying it would dramatically reduce the size of its underperforming investment bank and paying out $634 million in fines to regulators last year following failings at its foreign exchange business.
Labour lawmaker John Mann, who sits on parliament's Treasury Select Committee, said the awards were unacceptable.
"Here is a bank that's not doing very well that the taxpayer owns and has underwritten, so why should these few not very successful bankers get paid so much money? I don't think you'll find a taxpayer in Britain who would support this," he said.
The bank, which is 79 percent-owned by the British government, said it paid Chief Executive Ross McEwan 1.85 million pounds for the year, including a basic salary of 1 million.
Finance Director Ewen Stevenson, who joined the bank in May 2014, was paid 3.1 million pounds, including a 1.9 million pound award in shares to replace awards he forfeited on leaving his previous employer Credit Suisse.
RBS said it had handed shares worth up to 13.3 million pounds to directors under a long-term incentive plan. McEwan received shares worth up to 1.56 million pounds under a plan which will vest in 2019 and 2020.
Restructuring chief Rory Cullinan, who was handed responsibility for running RBS's investment bank last week, was awarded shares worth 2.1 million pounds, vesting between 2016 and 2020.