The chief executive, directors and senior managers at Irish Life and Permanent will not be paid bonuses for last year.
Irish Life and Permanent's CEO Denis Casey was paid €890,000 last year compared with €1.3m a year earlier, the company revealed today. Mr Casey did not take a bonus of €620,000 for 2008.
IL&P Chairwoman Gillian Bowler was paid €288,000 instead of the €420,000 which she would have been entitled to, a reduction of 32%.
The bank has also frozen the pay for senior managers and directors for 2009, while any bonuses due for 2008 for all other staff will be cut by 75%.
In a statement, Irish Life and Permanent confirmed that no bonuses would be paid to any of the 160 senior managers in the group for last year.
This includes CEO Denis Casey, Group Finance Director Peter Fitzpatrick and the CEO of Irish Life Kevin Murphy. These three executive directors had received about €1.4m in bonuses between them in 2007.
An IL&P spokesman said the decisions on remuneration reflected the challenges facing the business and the broader economy.
He said these decisions had been taken on the group's own initiative and Irish Life and Permanent would continue to work closely with the Government appointed review group on senior executive pay in the banking sector.
Recapitalisation plan details being worked on
Meanwhile, cuts in executive pay for bankers are expected to affect all Irish owned financial institutions covered by the banking guarantee. The development comes as the Government works on the final details of the recapitalisation of Bank of Ireland and AIB.
Until now most of the focus on pay cuts for bank executives has focused on Bank of Ireland and AIB. Both banks are expected to receive €3.5 billion each in a recapitalisation deal, possibly this week.
Politicians have been keen to stress that there would be caps on executive pay tied to recapitalisation. Sources say all six lenders covered by the banking guarantee are likely be affected.
A committee on bankers' pay is due to report to Government in the coming weeks. It will cover EBS, Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Life & Permanent and Irish Nationwide as well as the big two banks.
Today Green Party leader John Gormley said banking executives had been receiving huge levels of remuneration. He said there would be no parallel universe for senior bankers as other sectors suffered big pay cuts.
Last night, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has told RTE's The Week in Politics that there was much more tough talking to be done before the Government signed off on its plan to recapitalise AIB and Bank of Ireland.
The Government is seeking guarantees from the banks that lending for small businesses will be available soon, he said. It is also seeking assurances about the repossession of homes and a dramatic reduction in pay and bonuses in the banking sector.
