March 30, 2015 – ABN Amro managers will give up pay rises after a dispute over executive salaries delayed the privatization of the bank, the bank said on Sunday.
In a statement, the managers said they were “putting the interests of the bank and the public first”.
“Now that our remuneration is the subject of discussion and threatens to affect the future of ABN Amro…(we) have decided to renounce the allowance”, the managers wrote.
“We hope this will bring the bank in calmer waters”.
Last week, the bank’s supervisory board decided to increase the annual base salaries of most of its managers by 100,000 euros (US$108,870) each. It was widely condemned by lawmakers, who must approve the listing.
On Friday, Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said he was delaying a decision on ABN Amro’s privatization because of the outcry the pay raise had caused.
ABN Amro was nationalized during the financial crisis of 2008, ultimately costing taxpayers around 24 billion euros (US$26 billion). At the end of 2014, it reported a book value of 14.9 billion euros.
Analysts had been expecting the bank to list in the second half of 2015, in what would be the largest IPO to date on the Euronext exchange.
Chief Executive Gerrit Zalm, who did not get a salary raise, argued the managers who did were all hired after the bank’s nationalization, and their earning potential had been cut by a law that went into effect in February limiting bonuses in the financial sector to 20 percent.
Zalm’s base pay remains at 759,375 euros and the other managers, including Chief Execuitve Kees van Dijkhuizen, will make 607,500 euros.