With 31% jump, HDFC's Aditya Puri top gainer in salary hike among private bank chiefs

Mumbai: HDFC Bank's Aditya Puri saw the maximum jump in remuneration among private bank chiefs in 2015-16, with a 31 per cent growth at Rs 9.73 crore.

Axis Bank's Shikha Sharma came in second, whose compensation package jumped 28 per cent to Rs 5.50 crore.

The decision to give up bonuses after RBI-mandated asset quality review (AQR) saw ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar's salary decline 22 per cent to Rs 4.79 crore in the year gone by, as declared in bank annual reports.

If the Rs 1.16-crore bonus Kochhar received in 2014-15 is excluded, her remuneration grew 14.47 per cent in 2015-16.

Yes Bank chief Rana Kapoor saw a 20.76 per cent hike in remuneration at Rs 5.67 crore. For Kotak Mahindra Bank's Uday Kotak, the corresponding figure was over 9 per cent at Rs 2.47 crore in 2015-16.

Some market watchers say much of the top management compensation package was decided in early part of the fiscal before RBI's AQR kicked in.

The Reserve Bank has initiated the AQR exercise to help banks clean up their balancesheets.

Sharma has let it be known that the asset quality improvement will be "gradual".

Compared to the bank's median salary, Kochhar's salary is 100 times that of an average employee while Puri's is 179 times. HDFC Bank had 311 employees earning over Rs 60 lakh per year while for Axis Bank, it stood at 163, their annual reports showed.