FCA chief paid £455k during year of staff pay disputes
Nikhil Rathi (pictured), chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), was paid a salary of £455,000 between 31 March 2021 and 31 March 2022, during a period where staff threatened to strike over pay disputes.
Rathi’s salary was revealed in the FCA’s full accounts, which were published today. On top of his salary, he earned £60,000 in pension contributions, and did not receive any bonus payments.
His predecessor Andrew Bailey earned a salary of £435,000 per annum during his tenure. Bailey also picked up £27,200 in bonus payments in March 2019, with a further £40,000 in bonuses due to be paid before his departure in 2020. He declined the £40,000 bonus.
Rathi joined the FCA in October 2020, earning a partial salary of £228,000 during the 2020/21 financial year.
He has overseen a number of changes at the FCA since his appointment, including the digitisation of regulatory functions, a substantial increase in the FCA’s headcount, and a commitment to bring the regulator in line with environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards.
However, Rathi has faced a number of challenges during his leadership. In January 2022, FCA staff voted on strike action, with a planned walkout set to take place on 5 and 6 July. The strike was later called off.
Staff have expressed anger at Rathi’s plans to transform the City watchdog, with Unite members warning that he will create a “bargain basement” regulator.
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Staff said that Rathi’s proposals would result in three out of four of them having their pay reduced by 10 per cent.
“Management at the FCA are attempting to implement a program of pay cuts, which has come after two years in which the staff at the FCA have worked gruelling hours to provide financial protection against Covid for borrowers, investors, small businesses and people with mortgages,” said Dominic Hook, national officer for Unite.
“Unite has made it clear that if introduced these cuts will make it even less likely that the FCA will be able to deliver this high standard of public service in the future.”
According to Unite, Freedom of Information requests revealed that 1,000 employees have left the FCA since Rathi took office in October 2020. However, the FCA responded that there were 721 departures between October 2020 and March 2022, in line with what the regulator had previously seen in terms of turnover.
In a speech earlier this year, Rathi said that he will never stop listening, and pledged to offer staff “what is possibly the best package among UK regulators, with competitive pay and strong rewards for consistent performance and greater opportunity for career mobility.”
The FCA accounts revealed that the executive directors and the FCA board decided not to increase employee salaries for 2021/22, with the exception of a 1.2 per cent salary increase for those paid below £24,000 per annum on a full-time equivalent basis.
In March 2022, the FCA introduced a new employment offer, which would see around 900 of the FCA’s lower paid colleagues received an average salary increase of £3,575.
Last week, Rathi said that the FCA expects to have added almost 1,000 new colleagues by the end of the year in London, Edinburgh and Leeds.
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