I have a lot of personal finance appreciation for building societies.
On the whole they support their local communities, keeping branches open in towns where the banks have long upped sticks.
They are also customer-centric (some better than others), and as a newspaper we’ve backed to the hilt their call for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to leave our cash Isas alone.
Although it looks a dead cert that the annual cash Isa allowance of £20,000 will take a haircut in 12 months (Rachel from Accounts said as much a few days ago when being grilled by the Treasury Select Committee), the money already held in these accounts will not lose their tax-free status, as the Building Societies Association first feared.
Against a backdrop of rising taxes and continued economic woes, cash Isas provide a mini tax haven for young and old. Rachel, hands off our cash Isas.
Yet societies are not immune from criticism, especially when it comes to boardroom remuneration. While most of the remaining 42 societies are straightforward organisations, providing loans and saving accounts to customers, some of the chief executives receive remuneration that 99 per cent of readers can only dream of. Seven figures’ worth in the case of those who run the biggest societies.
Furthermore, in many cases the remuneration they are receiving is increasing well ahead of inflation and earnings growth.
Last week, in among reporting on the fallout from President Trump’s calamitous decision to impose tariffs on all and sundry, I waded through the 2024 financial accounts for 34 societies.
Three bosses received £1 million plus, with Susan Allen (pictured), head of Yorkshire, leading the way
Steve Hughes, Coventry Building Society CEO, received renumeration worth £1.2 million
And Stuart Haire, CEO of Skipton Building Society received a package worth £1.1 million
The remaining eight, including Nationwide (the largest by a country mile), have post-December 31 year-ends, so their accounts have yet to see the light of day.
The table shows the remuneration of the 20 highest-paid society bosses in 2024.
By paid, I mean the total they received in salary, bonuses, pension contributions and benefits (for example, private medical insurance and car allowances).
Three received £1 million plus, with Susan Allen, head of Yorkshire, leading the way. She received £1,695,000, an 11 per cent increase on the year before.
Part of this was a £770,000 bonus for ensuring the society met various targets, including profits, customer respect for the society (slightly up) and building a ‘greener’ business.
Indeed, it has been a lucrative introduction to the building society for Allen. Since joining in March 2023 from Barclays, she has received £5,741,000 – a figure boosted by £4,046,000 of ‘replacement’ awards that she lost byleaving the bank.
The bosses of Coventry and Skipton (Steve Hughes and Stuart Haire, respectively) also received £1 million plus in 2024.
These sums will be dwarfed by Debbie Crosbie’s remuneration when Nationwide publishes its accounts. In the last financial year, the chief executive received £2,410,000.
Of course, some customers will be indifferent to boardroomlargesse, content with the quality of service and products they receive from the society they use. But there will be others whofeel otherwise.
Irrespective of the camp you sit in, you have the right to register your approval or disapproval by voting for or against the directors’ remuneration report ahead of the annual general meeting (AGM).
Most societies with calendar year-ends will hold their AGMs later this month. But the specific dates for Yorkshire, Coventry and Skipton are 29th, 24th and 28th of April. You can even go along and vote at the meeting and ask the board a question or two.
On Friday, Yorkshire said executive pay was set to ‘attract and retain the right talent’ whileCoventry said the remuneration of its chief executive ‘reflected his leadership of an organisation that has delivered sustained andconsistent membership-focused results’.
Skipton didn’t respond to a request for a comment.
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