Nomura team triple pay pot
JAPANESE bank Nomura tripled the amount it handed out in compensation to its executive team last year after the bank returned to profit, arguing that it needed to maintain a “competitive” pay structure to keep top talent on board.
Chief executive Kenichi Watanabe, chief operating officer Takumi Shibata and eight other executives shared a total pay pool of 1.45bn yen (£10.86m) in the 12 months to March.
That compared with a pot of just 829m yen in the previous year, although that figure was split between 20 executives, most of whom have now left the bank.
Nomura’s 10 directors (excluding Watanabe and Shibata, whose pay was included in the executive pool) received 516m yen, of which 160m went to the six outside directors.
“Nomura is establishing its status firmly as a globally competitive financial services group,” the bank said in an investor report. “To support this, we recognise that our people are our most valuable asset…We have developed our compensation policy for both executives and employees of Nomura Group to ensure we attract, retain, motivate and develop talent.”
The pay hikes came despite a show of restraint among the world’s largest banks. Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein surprised investors earlier this year by announcing he would take a bonus of just $9m (£6.1m), in contrast to reports he could have been in line to collect much more.
Nomura charged back into the black last year, racking up a net profit of 67.8bn yen compared with a loss of 708.2bn yen in the previous year.