Why is non-executive pay so high at Yorkshire Building Society? - Yorkshire Post Letters

My wife and I are investor members of the Yorkshire Building Society and have just received a booklet, the Annual Review 2024.

A building society has a very simple business model. Nothing wrong in that, and Yorkshire has a proud record in the movement, but it is not difficult. You pay investors one rate of interest and charge mortgagees a higher rate of interest to cover costs and create a modest surplus.

I feel it necessary therefore to question why the four executive and 11 non-executive directors took home nearly £5 million last year. This equates to an average of over £1 million per executive director with the chief executive on an eye watering £1.695 million. And eleven (why do they need eleven?) part time non-executives were rewarded with a total of almost another million (£927,000) an average of over £86,000 each, not bad for a part time commitment.

Nearly £20,000 a year is paid to the chair of the remuneration committee, just for that task. All members of remuneration committees are on the gravy train themselves and have a vested interest in inflating incomes.

I am not questioning the quality of management of YBS. It avoided the ridiculous Phillips Trust misjudgement that caused so much embarrassment to the Leeds and Newcastle Building Societies among others. But I do just question how these very substantial costs of the top management can be justified.