Banking

Massive payday for Absa’s top executives – earning a collective R430,000 per day

Malcolm Libera

 ·11 Mar 2024

Absa’s annual remuneration report for 2023 was released in March 2023 – revealing how much the bank’s top execs earned over the last financial year.

In its financial results for the full year ending December 2023, Absa recorded a total income of R104.6 billion for the year, up from R96.8 billion the year prior.

Discounting the Barclays separation effects, this is only marginally lower at R104.5 billion (normalised).

Normalised headline earnings were R20.9 billion, higher but relatively flat compared to the R20.7 billion recorded in FY2022.

The group saw its headline earnings per share increase marginally by 1% to 2,422.3 cents for the financial year ended 31 December 2023 (FY23).

Although the group’s H2 dividend per share dropped by a sizeable 12.7% to 685 cents per share, its total dividend for the year increased by 5% to 1,370 cents per share.

Executive pay

According to Absa’s single-figure report, CEO Arrie Rautenbach’s pay amounted to R40.03 million in 2023 – a 10.6% cut from the R44.78 million he received in 2022.

This comprises his fixed salary of R9.79 million and a cash incentive of R6.8 million. The group CEO also got a deferred award of R5.8 million as well as a performance award vested of R17 million.

Rautenbach’s salary equates to him earning around R109,685 a day.

The group’s CFO, Jason Quinn, took home R6.49 million for the year. However, Quinn ceased to be the Group Financial Director and executive director on 22 November 2023.

This is because as of 31 May 2024, Jason Quinn will be replacing Mike Brown as Nedbank’s new CEO.

His disclosed remuneration has therefore been pro-rated for time in service as an executive director during 2023, said Absa.

Following this, the bank added Christopher Snyman was appointed as Interim Group Financial Director and an executive director on 22 November 2023.

His disclosed fixed remuneration has also been pro-rated for time in service as an executive director during 2023.

Of Absa’s top eight executives – excluding Quinn and Snyman for the abovementioned reasons – Chief Executive of Everyday Banking Cowyk Fox took home the ‘smallest’ amount among the executives at R14.28 million.

Absa also noted that Punki Modise ceased to be an executive director on 29 March 2022.

Combined, the eight executives received a total of R156.88 million in salaries – averaging R19.61 million per exec and R429,830 per day.

The table below outlines what Absa’s top executives earned and how it translates per day.

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