Peter Sands gets $3.15m as Standard Chartered bosses’ bonuses are hit after US fine for breaching Iran sanctions

Top brass at Standard Chartered have had their bonuses cut by 10% despite the bank recording its 10th successive year of record profits after it was fined $667 million (£443 million) last year for breaching United States sanctions against Iran.

Chief executive Peter Sands’ annual bonus has been cut from $3.5 million to $3.15 million and finance director Richard Meddings’ from $2.4 million to $2.16 million.

Meddings said: “The remuneration committee reflected on a number of things, one of which was the US settlement and across the broader management cohort bonuses were down by around 10%. That affected hundreds of people.”

He also said the number of people paid more than £1 million by the bank last year had dropped from 56 to 47.

But shares in Standard Chartered, which sponsors Liverpool FC, shot up 49p to a three-year high of 1829p as investors reflected on the fact that not only did it receive no bailout during the financial crisis but continued to increase profits throughout it.

Last year the rise was just 1% to $6.87 billion but that is after the US fines. Underlying growth was still 9% as the bank’s focus on emerging markets and trade financing continued to pay off.

The bank also makes big play of the fact that its dividend — up 10.5% to 84 cents a share —payout total of $2 billion is higher than its bonus pool of $1.4 billion.

Sands said the new year had started well with “good momentum in January continuing in February”.