Samuel Tsien's pay for running OCBC jumped last year. How does he stack up against Asian counterparts?
The Singaporean lender disclosed what it is paying CEO Samuel Tsien on Friday, in its annual report. OCBC Bank's chief executive bagged a more then 15 percent pay hike last year, taking home S$9.69 million ($7.4 million) in 2017. In 2016, his total remuneration was S$8.38 million.
The sharp rise in pay comes against the backdrop of a 20 percent surge in profit at OCBC last year, which recently unveiled private banking expansion plans in the Middle East. The lender also nudged its payout to shareholders slightly higher, as finews.asia reported two months ago.
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The package places Tsien in second place behind DBS Chief Executive Piyush Gupta, who retains his crown as Asia's highest paid banker with S$10.3 million last year. Tsien outpaced Gupta in one measure: the OCBC boss took home a cash bonus of over S$5 million, a factor of more than four of his more than S$1.2 million fixed salary.
By contrast, Gupta's bonus stood at S$3.9 million last year. The bonus payments are not subject to restrictions such as clawback provisions or deferred pay common on Wall Street or the City of London. Wee Ee Chong chief executive of the smaller of the country's three main lenders United Overseas Bank, notched an 11 per cent pay rise last year to S$9.4 million.
