Goldman tops UK banker pay with $4.7 mln awarded for 2013

* Goldman tops London banker pay league based on 2013 data * Data show 3.4 bln stg paid out to 2,600 top bankers at 13banks * Goldman, Bank of America paid most in bonuses vs fixed pay By Steve Slater LONDON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs paid its top121 London bankers about 3 million pounds ($4.7 million) onaverage last year, far exceeding payouts at other leading banks,data released on Tuesday showed. The U.S. investment bank's data showed that it paid staff insenior or risk-taking positions $193.6 million in 2013 and gavethem 2.1 million restricted stock units (RSUs), worth $377million based on the bank's share price at the end of that year. The RSUs are due to be paid out over three years, but theymay not be paid in full and can be clawed back at a later date. The remuneration figures mean that Goldman was easily thehighest paying of 13 leading U.S., British, Swiss and Japanesebanks in 2013. Data compiled by Reuters from the 13 banks showed 2,600employees at British banks or working in London were paid morethan 3.4 billion pounds in 2013, or an average of 1.3 millionpounds each. That is almost 50 times average annual pay inBritain. The details are the most comprehensive released on bankers'pay in Britain, which remains a hot topic after large bonuseswere blamed for encouraging risk-taking and contributing to thefinancial crisis. Many shareholders have also voiced criticism,saying that pay needs to come down to improve profitability. The 2013 pay disclosures cover British banks globally andoverseas banks' British-based staff. EU banks outside Britain donot need to disclose the details. Most banks released the details earlier this year, butGoldman, Citigroup and Credit Suisse allreported in the past week, just before the year-end deadline. The data showed that Goldman and Bank of America face the most work to restructure pay to meet new EU rules thatcame into effect at the start of 2014 and cap bonuses at 200percent of fixed pay. Both banks paid senior staff more than five times more invariable pay than fixed pay in 2013. The following table shows what the banks paid their seniorand risk-taking employees, known as "code staff", in 2013.Figures are in millions of pounds, with $1 = 0.6436 pounds wherebanks reported in dollars. BANK NO. OF AGGREGATE AVERAGE VARIABLE CODE PAY PAY VS FIXED STAFF* Goldman 121 367.1** 3.034 x5.5 Sachs Bank of 110 180.2 1.638 x5.3 America ML Morgan 116 178.9 1.54 x2.9 Stanley JPMorgan 209 318.6 1.525 x4.1 Credit 165 250 1.518 x3.6 Suisse Nomura*** 79 114.9 1.455 x2.9 Barclays 530 753 1.421 x3.9 Citigroup 182 250**** 1.374 x1.6 UBS 156 195.1 1.25 x3.0 HSBC 330 372.9 1.13 x2.8 Standard 124 134.3 1.083 x1.9 Chartered RBS 342 213.5 0.624 x1.1 Lloyds 140 80.5 0.575 x1.4 TOTAL 2,604 3,409 1.31 x3.1 *UK banks' group-wide code staff and non-UK banks'British-based code staff. **Includes estimated value of restricted stock units, basedon end-2013 Goldman Sachs share price *** For year ending March 30, 2014 **** Includes compensation paid previously that vested in2013. (Editing by David Goodman)