Former RSA operations boss George Culmer in line for £5.86m payday after moving from insurer to Lloyds bank

George Culmer

Former RSA chief operating officer George Culmer is at the centre of a bonus row today after it was revealed he will pick up £5.86m by moving to Lloyds Banking Group.

Culmer, who will join Lloyds as finance director on 16 May, will receive £1.9m in share awards to compensate him for bonuses he has forfeited by leaving RSA.

Once further bonuses, salary and pension is thrown in, Culmer will pick up £5.86m, according to reports today. The awards should come to fruition during a three-year period.

High Pay Centre chair Deborah Hargreaves told the Daily Mail: “This is an absolute scandal. Once you have an executive on such a huge pay package, everyone else’s pay has to be ratcheted up. Lloyds is compensating Culmer for retention bonuses he would have received if he stayed at the RSA. It’s completely ridiculous.”

The TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign director Emma Boon told the newspaper: “As Lloyds is still partly in public ownership, it’s completely inappropriate for them to offer large pay packets like this.”

According to the Mail, business secretary Vince Cable defended the deal: “I do acknowledge the need for exceptional people to be paid at competitive rates, but there must be a direct link between performance and the bank achieving significant increase in lending to small businesses.

“Lloyds has made the most progress in rediscovering relationship banking, but the economy needs them to do much more.”