Fugitive Building Society Gravy Train is being launched

While some executives of the country’s building societies have been charging exorbitant interest on their savings, customers have continued to enjoy a steady increase in wages.

An exclusive study by The Mail on Sunday published today shows that 13 society chief executives have doubled or more than their 2021 salary.

The biggest prize so far has been given to David Cutter, a longtime boss from Skipton, who saw his overall financial package for 2021 jump nearly 103 percent to £ 1,309,000. This is initially the result of a £ 622,000 ‘Performance’ bonus reward on top of the basic salary of £ 599,000. In 2020, Cutter withdrew from the bonus scheme. He will step down shortly after the Society’s AGM on April 25.

The other six CEOs of the society received a six-figure bonus last year. This includes many large society officials from Schipton (Coventry and Yorkshire) as well as a fraction of its size. Mark Bogard, for example, who receives a 115,000 annual bonus, is in charge of The Family Building Society, which manages one-tenth of Skipton’s size and operates only one branch in Epsom, Surrey.

The cut bonus is primarily a result of Schipton’s core savings and growing profits from the mortgage division. Last year, Skipton made an overall profit of £ 271.8million, compared to আগের 118.8million the previous year – with savings and debt accounting for 87 percent of profits.

These profits are made up of the difference between the interest charged on the borrower’s loan and the interest paid by the savers. The Bank of England’s base rate rose to 0.75 per cent today from 0.1 per cent in November MoS’s Give Savers A Rate Rise campaign calls on all banks and building societies to offer savers better deals.

Although Cutter’s ‘single variable pay system’ for 2021 is based on a number of factors, including the level of customer satisfaction and the increase in savings and mortgage balances, profit is the main determinant. The higher the profit generated on a pre-determined goal, the higher the annual performance reward. So in the interest of cutting it – and other Schipton executives – keep a lid on paying interest savers.

In Skipton’s defense, Cutter’s financial rewards are for running a successful business – unlike Mark Hartigan, the boss of insurance giant LV, who received a £ 511,000 bonus last year after selling the proposed ব্যবস 530 million business to US private equity firm Bain Capital. Skipton and LV are both mutually exclusive, owned by their members.

Also, the North Yorkshire-based society offers more attractive savings rates than all the major high street banks. However the discrepancy between the financial fate of the cutter and the general Schipton customers may not be more obvious. For example, a saver, including £ 10,000 in Schipton’s Instant Access account, has a daily saver, starting at 2015 at an interest rate of 0.15 percent – in other words, they promise £ 15 annual interest on their £ 10,000 balance.

By the end of the year, the base rate had doubled to 0.3 percent in response to an increase from 0.1 percent to 0.25 percent. But still the equivalent of only £ 30 in a ব্য 10,000 savings balance, always being devastated by inflation. Today’s Easy Access Savings Account offers 0.55 percent. Cutter’s 2021 remuneration works at £ 3,586 for each day of the year.

In the Family Building Society, a client with a branch saver account started 2021 with a balance of £ 10,000 at 0.35 percent interest, equivalent to an annual interest of £ 35. By the end of the year, despite the increase in the base rate, the rate has dropped to 0.2 percent (£ 20 interest per annum).

What are the results of our research

Although only 43 building societies are doing business today, after falling by the wayside in the 2008 financial crisis, they still play a significant role in providing a home for savers money. Building societies have more than 23 million savings ‘members’ – seven times the number of borrowers. As members, customers are, in fact, the owners of the association just like the shareholders of a listed company.

Among them, building societies manage assets of around 4 454 billion. To their credit, they often run branches in communities that the big high street banks abandoned long ago.

They support community charities, often local charities in areas where they have branches. And they will often take a more personal approach to lending decisions – rather than the computer-driven model adopted by the big banks.

MoS has analyzed 35 reports and 2021 accounts that have so far been published by building societies. Only teachers, in the last year of December, have not yet released their 2021 accounts.

The remaining seven years are over. They include the largest building society in the country with a fiscal year ending tomorrow As of April 4, 2021, Bose Joe Garner received a total salary of £ 1,236,000 – less than last year’s Scipton cut. Skipton’s business is close to one-tenth of its size nationwide. Details of Garner’s financial package for the year ending tomorrow will not be released for several months, so it could be as waterlogged as the cutter. He is handing over the reins of the country to Debbie Crossby, the former chief executive of TSB.

Details of total remuneration received by society officials – basic pay, any performance bonus, pension and other benefits (for example a car) are shown in the table. We have examined the salaries of 35 people, only four of them have seen their 2021 financial package shrink compared to 2020. All but five of the 35 received annual bonuses, ranging from £ 622,000 to £ 9,927 for the cutters that Kevin Gray received as boss of the baths, one of the smallest building societies in the sector. Among those who did not receive bonuses were Sarah Hao of Harpenden and Gerard O’Keefe of Buckinghamshire.

In the case of Howe, who resigned from his job in September last year, he and his associate finance director did not receive any annual bonuses for failing to reach the ‘profit barrier’. Harpenden’s profit dropped from £ 211,000 to just £ 86,000. O’Keefe’s 2021 salary is 187,000 with no bonus, although a note from the account states that 20 23,660 was paid last month for his ‘performance’ in 2021. Last year. This indicates – quite strongly – that the vast majority of building societies have retained profits and retained boardroom rewards before paying savers better interest rates. As well as Harpenden, Bath and Hanley Economic also saw their 2021 profits decline.

Can members do anything to protest?

All members of the building society – savers and borrowers – can register their inconvenience for additional boardroom pay.

They can do so by voting against the directors’ remuneration report before the annual general meeting – or at the meeting if they wish to travel. Most of the associations that end their last year in December will have their AGMs later this month. Skipton’s meeting, for example, will take place on April 25 when Coventry, the country’s second largest society, will hold its AGM three days later at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

Most building society members can vote before the AGM – by post, online or at the branch. For Skipton, the voting deadline is April 20 – April 25 in Coventry.

Although voting against the remuneration of directors sends a signal of disapproval to the board, it is no more than that. The vote is disobedient which means the board does not have to work on it. Organizations such as the Building Societies Members Association have long argued for an annual compulsory vote for remuneration.

It further believes that any bonus offered to managers should be based on improved benefits for members (for example, higher savings rates), not on larger profits.

Although members often spoke out against executive pay at the AGM, only minorities voted against the pay report. At Coventry’s AGM last year, for example, only 8,326 people voted against, compared to the 96,000 who voted in favor. Separate figures for Schipton were 4,787 and 58,082.

This suggests widespread apathy, but it is not strictly true. Many customers use the so-called ‘quick vote’ when voting before the AGM. It effectively hands over their vote to the chairman of the society.

In the case of remuneration reports, this means voting for it, not against it. The BSMA has long called for a “ban” on rapid voting, calling it “underhand”.

What do societies say in their defense?

On Friday, The Mail on Sunday asked both Skipton and The Family to justify the 2021 remuneration package to David Cutter and Mark Bogard.

Schipton said the 2021 executive directors’ remuneration reflects the group’s record performance, which included the acquisition of estate agent countrywide by subsidiary Connells. Cutter, it added, has played a ‘central role’ in purchasing and setting up groups for an ‘exciting future’.

This confirms that Skipton’s executives have voluntarily withdrawn from their 2020 bonus scheme – which explains the 1021.6 percent jump in Cutter’s 2021 remuneration.

Last year, it said the Skipton average savings rate was 0.65 percent, 0.37 percentage points higher than the market average. Also, after last month’s base rate increase, all of its variable savings accounts paid 0.50 percent or more.

The family told MoS: ‘We are deeply concerned about savers, but cannot influence the overall market which is at a historically low level.’

Regarding the 2021 bonus of পে 115,000 paid to Executive Pay, and boss Mark Bogard, it says: Our members. ‘

The Building Society Association, waving the sector’s flag, acknowledged that salaries and bonuses for senior leaders are an ‘understandably sensitive issue’. It said that when deciding on executive pay, the association’s remuneration committees and boards verify the level of competition and benchmarks in the financial services sector, balancing remuneration requirements to be competitive in building mutual societal values. Members are best served by talented leaders.

Regarding savings, it said that in the last three years, associations have paid £ 2.4 billion more in interest than members from accounts in high street banks.