By Iain Withers, Lawrence White and Sinead Cruise
LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - Top executives at British
lenders HSBC, Standard Chartered and NatWest
said on Wednesday they would take salary cuts, after
pressure on bankers to show solidarity with customers struggling
to make ends meet during the coronavirus crisis.
HSBC said its Chairman Mark Tucker, CEO Noel Quinn and CFO
Ewen Stevenson would all donate 25% of their salary for the next
6 months to charity.
Tucker will also donate his entire 2020 fee.
Standard Chartered said its CEO Bill Winters and CFO Andy
Halford would waive their cash bonuses in respect of 2020
performance and make "significant" personal donations to the
lender's COVID-19 Assistance fund.
The bank reiterated that no staff would be laid off as a
result of the pandemic.
The CEO and the Chairman of NatWest, formerly known as Royal
Bank of Scotland, have taken a 25% cut in salary for the
rest of the year.
Alison Rose, who became CEO of the state-backed bank last
year, has also told the board she does not want to be considered
for any bonuses this year, RBS said.
"We are fully focused here at the bank on doing everything
we can to provide financial support and advice to our customers
in these very challenging times," RBS Chairman Howard Davies
said.
The money forfeited - which totals 559,000 pounds
($692,433.30) - will be given to the National Emergencies Trust.
The moves come after rival lenders Barclays and
TSB, the British unit of Spain's Sabadell, said on
Tuesday their senior executives would give up some pay.
The Bank of England piled pressure on banks last week by
requesting all major lenders scrap cash bonus payments to
executives and risk takers, as part of efforts to conserve
capital that also included ditching dividends.
($1 = 0.8073 pounds)