Top executives at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) took home almost £640,000 (£637,000) in collective salary from March last year to March this year.
In its Annual Report and Accounts published on Thursday (15 July), for the year ending 31 March 2021, it highlighted that FCA chief executive officer Nikhil Rathi earned £228,000 for that year but at the time of his appointment last year, he agreed an annual salary of £455,000.Executive director Christopher Woolard received £239,000 from March 2020 to March this year and FCA chair Charles Randell took home a salary of £170,000.
For their pensions, Rathi can expect £29,000 to head into his pension pot while Woolard will get £15,000.
Ex-FCA chief Andrew Bailey, who resigned from the regulator in March last year to become governor of the Bank of England was awarded a performance bonus of £68,000.
Two-fifths (£27,000) of that was paid in March 2019 and the remaining was held in deferment and due to be paid in April last year. Bailey declined to receive the remaining deferred bonus of £40,800.
High risk
The FCA also highlighted the action it had taken against firms. In the 2020/21 financial year, the regulator ensured £21.7m in consumer redress for unauthorised investment businesses and froze almost £7m of funds.
It also opened 1,715 supervision cases into high-risk investment scams and imposed financial penalties totalling £189.8m.
In April, the FCA began asking for views from members of the financial services sector on how to tackle the issue of high-risk investments, despite admitting that it has 'limited powers' over their issuers. In the discussion paper that followed the FCA's call for input paper, launched in September last year, the FCA asked for views on three areas where changes can be made to protect consumers from harm.
