Former Financial Conduct Authority chief Andrew Bailey turned down a £40,000 bonus award in his final year at the financial regulator.
Mr Bailey left the FCA to head up the Bank of England in March this year, but was due to receive a £40,800 deferred share of his performance bonus from the previous year this April.
In its latest annual report and accounts published yesterday (September 11) the regulator revealed its former chief executive had "declined to receive" the remaining bonus. No reason was given for the decision.
In total Mr Bailey received a £68,000 bonus for the period 2018/19, his final full year at the FCA, but 60 per cent of this was deferred last year amid an ongoing independent review into the regulator's handling of the collapsed London Capital & Finance.
The £27,200 which Mr Bailey did receive upfront in March last year was reportedly donated to children's charity Barnardo's. As a result of leaving the FCA, he was not eligible for a bonus this year on top of his annual salary of £435,000.
This year, all members of the executive committee will defer performance bonuses until the LCF review is complete, the annual report said.
"[The] investigation is ongoing and, as a result, the remuneration committee has decided that performance bonuses awarded to voting members of the executive committee in respect of the year under review should be deferred until the report of the investigation has been issued. The committee will then decide whether it is appropriate for the bonuses to be paid at all, in whole or in part."
The accounts reveal Christopher Woolard, the interim chief executive who temporarily stepped into Mr Bailey's role before the arrival of Nikhil Rathi, was the highest paid director at the FCA in 2020.
Excluding this top spot, salaries at the regulator ranged from £21,405 to £377,807 - significantly lower than the highest equivalent amount of £511,297 recorded in 2019.
The year also saw the FCA boost its cash reserves by £121m, up from a deficit of £58m to a surplus of £63m as of March 2020.
With total operating costs of £591m the watchdog's biggest spend was on its staff, with a bill of £364m, and an IT expense of £77m.
Throughout the year the FCA also collected penalties of £258.8m, 125 per cent more than the £114.6m collected in 2019, and of which £206m was paid to the Exchequer.
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
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