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The 5 highest paid private sector bankers in India

It’s that time of the year when companies release their annual reports: the document that has detailed managerial compensation. Like every other year, this time too there is a lot of interest in finding out just how much the big corporate honchos took home in terms of compensation.

This year the interest is high as companies' sales and profitability have been impacted by the pandemic and employees have had to take a pay-cut.

We have already seen in a previous article who are the highest paid CEOs in India during the pandemic year.

Let’s take a look at the highest paid executives in the private sector banks.

Aditya Puri, who retired as Managing Director and CEO of HDFC Bank last year, continues to top the list. He received compensation of Rs 13.8 crore during the year 2020-21, including post retirement benefits of Rs 3.38 crore. In 2019-20, he received compensation of Rs 18.9 crore.

Aditya Puri, former MD & CEO, HDFC Bank
Aditya Puri, former MD & CEO, HDFC Bank

On a pro-rata basis, and excluding the retirement benefits, his compensation witnessed an increase of 10%.

Puri's successor at HDFC Bank Shashidhar Jagdishan received a compensation of Rs 4.8 crore for the year. In the previous year, he had earned Rs 2.9 crore, which makes it a 65% increase, primarily due to his promotion.

The compensation of the CEO is 139 times the median salary of HDFC Bank employees, which is around Rs 7.5 lakh. 200 employees in the bank earn a salary above Rs 1 crore.

In terms of results, HDFC Bank reported a 16.7% jump in net profits for FY20-21 at Rs 31,857 crore.

Axis Bank’s CEO Amitabh Chaudhary received a compensation of Rs 6.5 crore for the year. In the previous year he had earned Rs 6.0 crore, that makes it an 8% increase.

The compensation of the CEO is 104 times the median salary of the bank’s employees, which is around Rs 4.6 lakh. 69 employees in the bank earn a salary above Rs 1 crore.

In terms of results, Axis Bank reported an almost three-fold jump in net profits for FY20-21 at Rs 7,252 crore.

ICICI Bank CEO Sandeep Bakshi received a compensation of Rs 1 crore for the year. He had foregone his salary for the year due to COVID. In the previous year, he had earned Rs 6.31 crore.

Sandeep Bakshi, CEO, ICICI Bank
Sandeep Bakshi, CEO, ICICI Bank

He received allowances and perquisites amounting to Rs 38.38 lakh and Rs 63.6 lakh as deferred bonus for FY 2017 and FY 2018 from ICICI Life Insurance company.

Vishakha Muley, who is an Executive Director Incharge of Wholesale Banking at ICICI, received a compensation of Rs 5.6 crore.

The compensation of the Executive Director is 96 times the median salary of the bank’s employees, which is around Rs 6.8 lakh.

In terms of results, ICICI Bank reported double net profits in FY20-21 at Rs 20,220 crore.

The increase in salaries across the board is visible despite the decision taken by most banks that top management opt to voluntarily go for a 10% salary reduction from April 1 / May 1 in their payments due to COVID-19.

High salaries could be justified by better performance of the top three banks in terms of net profits during the year.

With inputs from agencies.

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