Standard Chartered banker pockets £16m

The credit crunch has certainly been kind to a former banker at Standard Chartered, who pocketed £16m last year to become the best-paid employee of a British bank.

Karam Butalia, the global head of private equity at Standard Chartered, collected the tidy sum after leaving the bank early last year.

His package is four times larger than that received last year by Peter Sands, the chief executive of the same bank. It is also ahead of the £13.7m awarded to Tom Cole, a HSBC banker in New York.

The revelation about the £16m awarded to Mr Butalia, 55, comes as banking bonuses come under intense public scrutiny as a result of the global financial crisis. Barclays is poised to unveil a new remuneration policy for its executives at its annual meeting on 23 April.

Standard Chartered has bucked the trend in global banking. In 2008, it posted pre-tax profits of $4.8bn (£3.3bn), although it completed a $3bn rights issue late last year to improve its capital position.

Mr Butali, who was based in Singapore, is understood to have been rewarded for private equity deals which he engineered during his six years at the bank.

Meanwhile, Barclays is expected to next week reveal that its bankers will receive a higher proportion of pay from deferred payments made in shares, which can be taken back if they do not hit targets.

However, the proposal is expected to recommend that executives at Barclays Capital, its investment banking arm, continue to receive handsome pay deals.