Citic pay lean amid banking's fat cats

Citic Securities is an exception among mainland state-owned enterprises (SOEs), whose top executives generally earn less than US$250,000 a year, nearly a hundredth of what some of the bosses at Western multinationals make.

President Xi Jinping last week pledged to "adjust the excessive and unreasonable pay" at SOEs. "There are bizarre signs at central SOEs, the most obvious of which is the very serious widening gap in pay among SOEs," said state news agency Xinhua yesterday.

Yin Ke, vice-chairman of Citic Securities, enjoys an exceptionally high salary among SOE bosses, with a total pre-tax remuneration of 9.99 million yuan (HK$12.56 million) last year, according to the firm's 2013 annual report.

JP Morgan Chase nearly doubled the total compensation of its chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon to US$20 million (including stock options) for 2013 even as it was paying US$13 billion in fines to the US Department of Justice for misleading investors over mortgage-backed securities.

Last year, Deutsche Bank capped the annual pay of its co-chief executives, Anshu Jain and Jurgen Fitschen, at €9.85 million each amid criticisms of over-the-top executive pay at the lender.

In contrast, the total pre-tax remuneration of ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing was 1.41 million yuan last year. The bank's profits and revenue have been steadily rising in past years.