Macquarie chief's pay cut to $24m as ‘millionaires' factory' rakes in $3.7b
Senior Macquarie Group bankers including chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake have received a smaller share of profits in response to the corporate watchdog's move to slap licence conditions on the bank over repeated compliance failings.
As Macquarie reported $3.7 billion in full-year profits on Friday, the investment bank known as the 'millionaires' factory' for its bumper pay packets also revealed how much it had paid its top executives.
The results came days after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said it had imposed extra licence conditions on the Sydney-based bank after 'multiple and significant' compliance failures in its futures and its derivatives trading areas.
Macquarie's annual report said the board had taken into account 'risk and regulatory matters' when setting pay, particularly ASIC's licence conditions, and this had been reflected in awarding executives including Wikramanayake and the chief executive of Macquarie Bank Limited (MBL), Stuart Green, a lower profit share.
Wikramanayake's pay for the full year dropped to $24 million, from $25.3 million the previous year, as the profit share awarded to the CEO dropped 5 per cent. Despite the lower profit share for Green, his overall pay edged up from $5.1 million to $5.2 million.
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The chair of Macquarie's board remuneration committee, Jillian Broadbent, said the board had considered both financial factors – including the bank's higher profits, return on equity and dividends – and non-financial factors, when setting pay.
'The board takes MBL's obligations as a licensed entity seriously and acknowledges there are areas where we can further improve compliance,' Broadbent said.
The report said that among the group's most senior executives, total comparable key management personnel awarded profit share had increased 3 per cent to $82.3 million. Wikramanayake last year topped The Australian Financial Review 's list of the country's highest-paid chief executives.
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'Interestingly, we've seen Bitcoin's growing status among younger investors as a similar hedge. 'Out of local retail investors who are adjusting their portfolios based on a weaker USD, 27 per cent of Gen Z respondents said they will buy more crypto, the highest out of all generations. Indeed, 52 per cent of local Gen Z investors already hold crypto.'
