HDFC Bank MD Aditya Puri highest paid bank CEO; Axis Bank CEO Amitabh Chaudhry at second position

HDFC Bank managing director Aditya Puri was the highest-paid bank chief executive in the country followed by Axis Bank CEO Amitabh Chaudhry during the financial year 2019, said a media report.

Puri, who led the bank since its inception 25 years ago, has a monthly basic pay of Rs 89 lakh while Chaudhry, who took over the position in January, is earning a basic monthly salary of Rs 30 lakh, said a report in The Economic Times.

Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Uday Kotak is at the third position with a monthly basic salary of Rs 27 lakh and ICICI Bank’s former boss Chanda Kochhar was the fourth highest-paid bank CEO at Rs 26 lakh per month till her exit from the bank, said the report.

During FY18, Puri took home nearly Rs 9.65 crore , less than Rs 10.05 crore in the previous year, according to the bank’s annual report. He exercised stock options worth over Rs 31.41 crore in 2017-18 against Rs 57.42 crore worth of stock options in 2016-17, the report showed.

In February this year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had proposed that at least 50 percent of the compensation of senior officials of private and foreign banks, including full-time directors and chief executive officers, “should be variable”.

A discussion paper on proposed guidelines for compensation of whole-time directors/chief executive officers/material risk takers and control function staff issued by the central bank also said ESOPs should be included as a component of variable pay.

In January 2012, the Reserve Bank had issued the compensation guidelines for implementation by the private sector and foreign banks from the financial year 2012-13.

— With PTI inputs