Former Citigroup chief executive Pandit receives £15.5m payour

Vikram Pandit will pick up nearly $15.5m (£9.75m) from Citigroup despite being forced to resign as chief executive last month.

The pay-out is embarrassing for the US banking giant, as there was a shareholder revolt earlier this year against Mr Pandit's 2011 remuneration package of $14.9m. Only 45 per cent of investors supported his pay packet, even though he took home a token $1 salary in the previous two years.

Mr Pandit resigned last month after the board, led by chairman Martin O'Neill, reportedly told the Indian-born banker that his work had not been up to scratch. He had led the bank for nearly five years, a time that included the worst depths of the credit crunch.

Filings made to the Securities and Exchange Commission late on Friday showed that the payments included $6.65m in incentives for 2012 and deferred stock and other awards totalling $8.83m.

Mr O'Neill said: "Vikram steered Citi through the financial crisis, realigned its strategy, bolstered its risk management processes and returned it to profitability."

Another director who was pushed out, former president and chief operating officer John Havens, will receive the best part of $7m. Both men joined Citi in 2007, when the bank splashed out $800m on a hedge fund, Old Lane LLC, which they had co-founded just one year earlier.