Fury over £6m payday for building society fat cats as branches close and jobs are axed
The bosses of some of Britain's biggest building societies have trousered bumper pay rises – despite closing branches and cutting jobs.
The five best-paid chief executives were handed £6m in total by the mutuals, according to analysis by the Mail, with some given increases worth tens of thousands of pounds.
Altogether, the bosses of the nation's 44 building societies got £15.2million between them in their most recent financial years.
It comes despite a wave of cutbacks and risks undermining societies' claims that they are different to the big banks.
Nationwide boss Joe Garner, 48, left, was paid £2.3m while Leeds Building Society boss Peter Hill, 56, right, was paid £765,000
Coventry boss Mark Parsons, left, earned £933,000, while Yorkshire boss Mike Regnier, right, enjoyed the biggest pay rise, with his total hiked by almost a third to £930,000
Justin Modray of consumer group Candid Money said: 'Building societies are meant to be owned by and run for the benefit of their members.
'Boardroom pay has gone through the roof in the past few years, but it's very disappointing to see the chief executives of building societies jumping on the bandwagon.'
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Top of the pay pile was Nationwide boss Joe Garner, 48, who was paid £2.3million in the year to April 4 – including a £217,000 benefits package as revealed by the Mail last month.
The other mutual boss to pocket seven figures was David Cutter at Skipton, despite his society being only the fourth biggest, who picked up £1million – £90,000 more than the previous year.
Riches for hockey star
Skipton’s £1million-a-year chief executive David Cutter claims he did not pick his career for the financial rewards.
Instead, the 56-year-old said he trained as an accountant because it gave him more time for sport. Cutter has played hockey for Wales and came close to joining the gold medal-winning 1988 Olympic team – following in the footsteps of his father, who represented Great Britain in three Olympics.
Cutter was educated at the prestigious Rugby School. He did not follow his family into farming because it seemed like too much work.
The father of three moved to Skipton in 1993 and rose up the ranks.
His soaring pay has helped fund a comfortable life in a £700,000 house in rural Yorkshire.
Cutter, 56, was fiercely criticised in 2010 when Skipton abandoned a pledge over interest rates for mortgage holders, then sent 3,000 customers' confidential details to the wrong addresses.
The mutual, which has around 840,000 members, last year announced it would axe eight branches and three agencies to save money.
A spokesman said: 'The remuneration of executive directors reflects the strong performance of the Skipton Group during 2017 – record group profits, strong growth in membership, mortgage and savings balances.'
Mark Parsons, head of Coventry Building Society, is the third best-paid society chief with £933,000.
Like many mutuals' bosses, 56-year-old Parsons is a former banker who left the City for a quieter life.
He rose through the ranks at Abbey National, now Santander, then later became deputy chief executive of Barclays' retail arm.
The married father of three joined Coventry in 2014 and now lives in a farmhouse in the countryside near its offices believed to be worth around £1m.
A spokesman said last night: 'Mark Parsons is paid appropriately in comparison to our mutual peers and appreciably less than our smaller PLC competitors, for leading a low cost and competitive organisation which consistently delivers above-average savings rates.'
Yorkshire Building Society boss Mike Regnier enjoyed the biggest pay rise, with his total hiked by almost a third to £930,000 following his promotion from chief customer officer at the start of 2017.
His bumper boost came after Yorkshire – which has 2m members – took over rival Norwich & Peterborough and slashed costs by closing about 60 branches plus an office in Cheltenham.
A 45-year-old Oxford graduate, Regnier joined HBOS in 2006 and stayed on after it was saved by Lloyds during the financial crisis.
He rose to become Lloyds' head of personal current accounts and credit cards – earning criticism for sky-high overdraft fees.
He moved to Yorkshire in 2014 and now lives in a £955,000 house with his wife. A spokesman said: 'The increase was in accordance with taking on a new role and considerable extra responsibilities.'
Leeds Building Society boss Peter Hill, 56, was paid £765,000, up £37,000 on a year earlier.
The mutual shut eight branches last year and is one of the few to have cut interest rates on its easy access savings account in the past year, from 1.05 per cent to 0.8 per cent.
A spokesman said: 'Chief executive remuneration... is set by the remuneration committee to attract and retain the right calibre of individual and is voted on annually by members.'
