Shares surged when the bank announced its annual results earlier in February, citing cost-cutting measures and increased payouts to investors. The bank said it was saving money by automating more services, closing branches and several head offices
Lloyds boss Charlie Nunn received a pay rise of nearly £2m last year desite a drop in profit, the closure of high street branches and a £1.2bin provision for potential costs from the motor finance saga,
In 2024, Mr Nunn’s earnings rose to £5.6, up from £3.7m the previous year, boosted by long-term bonuses linked to the rise in Lloyds’s share price. This comes as Lloyds’s profit fell by a fifth to £6bn last year, falling short of analysts’ expectations.
However, shares surged when the bank announced its annual results earlier in February, citing cost-cutting measures and increased payouts to investors. The bank said it was saving money by automating more services, closing branches and several head offices.
The group plans to close another 136 high street branches over the next year and has plans to shut offices in Dunfermline and Liverpool. Mr Nunn’s pay consisted of just under £2.5m in base salary, while his annual bonus dropped to £1.1m from £1.3m the previous year. However, the CEO received the first instalment of a share-related bonus worth £2m.
This was the first time the three-year, so-called long-term incentive payment had been in place since Mr Nunn joined Lloyds in 2021.
The bank’s rising pay packet comes as it is compelled to reserve an additional £700m for potential compensation costs related to motor finance commission arrangements, adding to the £450m confirmed last year. These so-called hidden commission arrangements between car dealers and borrowers are currently under a major review by the UK’s financial watchdog and are also the subject of significant court cases.
The banking group, through its brand Black Horse – one of the UK’s largest car finance providers, is exposed to this market. In other news, Lloyds is among several banks that have recently experienced significant outages in their digital services, sparking renewed interest from MPs about the extent of recent IT failures.
Earlier in February, the Treasury Committee stated that it had written to the heads of nine banks, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and Nationwide, asking them to detail the duration of service unavailability over the past two years and the number of customers affected. Lloyds was contacted for comment.
