Yorkshire Building Society defends £2.5m golden hello to new CEO Susan Allen as 'common practice'

The organisation's annual report reveals details of the payment to Ms Allen, who joined YBS from Barclays in March last year. She received the 'replacement award' in addition to a base salary of £785,000 and a bonus payment £777,000 - taking her total remuneration for the year to more than £4m.

YBS member Howard Bryan has written to The Yorkshire Post to urge fellow members of the mutual to vote against the pay deal at the mutual's AGM later this month.

Mr Bryan said of the “golden hello” paid to the new chief executive: “How can this be right? I would urge members like myself to vote against the remuneration report and the remuneration policy.”

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Before joining YBS Ms Allen had been Head of Customer Transformation at Barclays.

In the mutual’s annual report, YBS said her ‘replacement awards’ included £1.68m “to compensate for deferred awards forfeited on leaving her previous employer”, as well as £832,000 to compensate for “lost incentive opportunity” in 2022.

It said her YBS bonus was calculated on her annual salary, taking into account two bonus schemes operated by the mutual.

A spokesperson for YBS said: “In setting executive pay, the Remuneration Committee looks at a number of factors including the Society’s position against the market, as it is important that we are able to attract and retain the right talent in a competitive marketplace. Our member approved Remuneration Policy is structured to support the delivery of our strategy, recognising the Society’s performance and the value delivered for our members and customers.

“This year’s figures include a one-off payment to cover lost earnings related to Susan’s move from Barclays – this is common practice for executive pay in financial services.

“The Society attracted a record number of new savings accounts in 2023, delivered growth in both savings and mortgage balances and continued to increase our customer satisfaction scores. We are particularly proud our savers benefitted from interest rates 41 per cent higher than the market average, equating to an additional £441.1m in interest paid – more than double the previous year.”