* HSBC, StanChart and RBS bosses donate part of pay
* Lloyds executive directors waiving bonuses
* Moves follow Bank of England pressure
* Banks criticised for slow support to customers
(Adds Lloyds confirmation)
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.
Lloyds said all its executives - including CEO
Antonio Horta-Osorio - had asked not to be considered for
bonuses for 2020, but none took pay cuts or donated some of
their salary to charity, unlike directors at the other three
banks.
HSBC said its CEO Noel Quinn and CFO Ewen Stevenson would
donate 25% of their salary for the next 6 months to charity and
forego their cash bonuses, totalling 1.4 million pounds and
800,000 pounds respectively.
Chairman Mark Tucker will also donate his entire director's
fee for 2020, amounting to 1.5 million pounds according to the
bank's annual report.
Standard Chartered said its CEO Bill Winters and CFO Andy
Halford would waive their cash bonuses for this year and make
"significant" personal donations to the lender's COVID-19
Assistance fund.
Winters has donated 825,000 pounds, a source familiar with
the matter told Reuters.
Standard Chartered 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 up to 1.9 million pounds worth of 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 fixed pay money forfeited - which totals 559,000 pounds
($692,433) - will be given to the National Emergencies Trust.
NatWest has not halted all redundancies and is pressing ahead
with cuts to its investment bank.
BANK CRITICISM
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.
Britain's banks, which were saved by taxpayer funds in 2008,
have faced criticism during the virus outbreak for not providing
support fast enough to customers in financial difficulty.
The lenders have argued they are doing what they can and
that early versions of the government relief schemes they were
asked to deliver were flawed.
NatWest remains 62% owned by taxpayers following its 45
billion pound state bailout in the 2008 financial crisis.
($1 = 0.8073 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers, Lawrence White and Sinead Cruise;
editing by David Evans, Kirsten Donovan)