Axis Bank CEO Amitabh Chaudhry Bags Second-Highest Payout Of Rs 9.75 Crore In FY23

New Delhi, 7th August 2023: In FY23, Sashidhar Jagdishan, the CEO of HDFC Bank, emerged as the highest-paid bank executive, earning a total of over Rs 10.55 crore in overall compensation. Kaizad Bharucha, his colleague and the deputy managing director of HDFC Bank, earned Rs 10 crore during the fiscal year, making him potentially the second-highest-grossing banker in the country, as per the disclosures in the annual reports.

Among other bank CEOs, Amitabh Chaudhry of Axis Bank received the second-highest payout of Rs 9.75 crore, closely followed by Sandeep Bakhshi of ICICI Bank, who earned Rs 9.60 crore for the fiscal year.

Uday Kotak, who holds over 26 per cent of Kotak Mahindra Bank, continued his practice of taking a token salary of Re 1 as remuneration, which he started during the pandemic and maintained in FY23.

Kotak Mahindra Bank stood out in terms of compensation, reporting a 16.97 per cent increase in the average remuneration for its staff, excluding managerial talent. In comparison, ICICI Bank staff received an 11 per cent hike, while Axis Bank employees enjoyed an inflation-beating 7.6 per cent average increase. HDFC Bank reported an average pay hike of 2.51 per cent, and Federal Bank, with the industry’s lowest attrition rates, gave an average pay hike of only 2.67 per cent.

Regarding top management remuneration compared to median remuneration, Jagdishan topped the list, earning 150 times the average salary of an HDFC Bank employee. Bakhshi’s salary was 119 times the median salary of Axis Bank employees, while Chaudhry’s salary was 101 times the median.

According to the annual report, Jagdishan’s compensation package consisted of a basic salary of Rs 2.82 crore, allowances and perquisites valued at Rs 3.31 crore, a provident fund amounting to Rs 33.92 lakh, and a performance bonus of Rs 3.63 crore.

Jagdishan’s reported remuneration increased by 62 per cent compared to the Rs 6.51 crore he earned in FY22. ICICI Bank’s CEO Bakhshi witnessed a substantial increase of more than 35 per cent in his overall remuneration, whereas Chaudhry’s compensation saw a notable rise of nearly 28 per cent.

Notably, the RBI approved wage revisions for the bank’s top management for FY22 post the fiscal year’s conclusion, which means the reported remunerations for FY23 might include arrears from the previous fiscal year. This means that the disclosed hikes in remuneration for key management personnel may be lower than indicated.