NatWest is reportedly on the brink of scrapping the bulk of a suggested £10m or more payout to its former CEO Dame Alison Rose, after the debanking row involving Nigel Farage.
Sky News reports that NatWest’s board has decided to not pay Dame Alison most of the discretionary elements of her pay package due at the end of the year.
The decision is reportedly due to be announced to the London Stock Exchange on Friday (November 10), according to a source.
While the precise numbers are unclear, it had been expected that NatWest would adopt a hard line towards its former chief.
Dame Alison stepped down in late July after admitting that she had inaccurately briefed a BBC journalist about the reasons for closing Mr Farage’s accounts.
The report, which the BBC was forced to amend, suggested that the former UKIP leader did not meet its commercial criteria.
It subsequently emerged that his political views had been instrumental in the decision.
Last month, NatWest apologised to Mr Farage, acknowledging that it had been guilty of “serious failings” in the way it had treated him in their debanking row.
And this week, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was forced to apologise to Dame Alison after it claimed she had broken privacy laws.
The NatWest board’s decision means that she will forfeit millions of pounds in unvested share awards. She is, however, expected to receive a seven-figure sum in the form of her basic salary and fixed share allowance.
Dame Alison’s contract, which included a 12-month notice period, stipulated that she would receive an annual salary of £1.16m, with a further sum of the same amount in deferred share awards.
According to a public filing by NatWest in August, she has been receiving her annual £2.4m package since her departure at the end of July.
NatWest, the Treasury and a spokesman for Dame Alison all declined to comment when approached by Sky News.
