Bank boss in line for £4m bonus at Lloyds despite loss

THE boss of taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group is reportedly in line for a bonus of up to £4.4m this year despite an expected loss at the bank.

A doubling of the bank’s share price over the last 12 months could help spark the multimillion pound payout to Antonio Horta-Osorio, according to The Sunday Times.

Mr Horta-Osorio is understood to have beaten bonus targets linked to the share price, his turnaround plan and the number of complaints from customers.

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But given the political tensions over banking bonuses, the Lloyds directors may decide not to pay the full amount to the Portuguese banker, who last year waived his bonus following a prolonged period of sick leave.

Lloyds shares were the second best performing of Europe’s banks last year and closed last week at 54p, up from 25.5p in May.

But the bank is still expected to make a full year loss of about £1.4bn, as it continues to suffer from bad debts from corporate loans and a big bill over the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI).

The 40 per cent state-owned lender was pushed to a £144m loss in the three months to September 30, as it took an additional £1bn charge for dealing with the scandal, taking its total to £5.3bn

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Lloyds froze basic pay for 500 senior staff for the third year in a row on Friday. But stripping out the cost of PPI, the group doubled its underlying profit to a better-than-expected £840m in the third quarter as its slashed bad debts and narrowed losses from its non-core businesses.

There will be fears of another “shareholder spring”, which saw some of Britain’s biggest companies face a series of rebellions over pay last year.

Barclays was stung when nearly a third of shareholder votes failed to back its pay awards, largely driven by anger over a huge deal for former chief executive Bob Diamond.

Lloyds avoided such a rebellion at its own annual meeting, where some 97.6 per cent of shareholder votes backed its remuneration report.

Lloyds Banking Group could not be reached for a comment.