Ana Botín, president of Santander, obtained a salary, for all concepts, of 8.09 million euros, which is 1.86 million less than the previous year, that is, an 18.7% decrease. This drop is due to the fact that his fixed salary and bonus suffered a 50% cut compared to 2019, as announced in March, at the beginning of the pandemic. The income of the president of Santander is broken down into a cash remuneration of 5.35 million, a gross profit per shares (from a plan of previous years) of 979,000 euros, a contribution to the pension system of 1.115 million and other remuneration for “other items” of 606,000 euros, according to the entity’s documentation. In total, 8.09 million.
On the other hand, the group’s CEO, José Antonio Álvarez, made the same commitment as Botín to reduce his 2020 salary to 50%. The fixed remuneration remained at 2.5 million and the bonus was 906,000 euros (compared to of 4.3 million in 2019), which adds up to a remuneration of 3.4 million euros, compared to 6.8 million in 2019 (-50%).
When adding all the items cited in the case of Botín, such as contributions to pension plans and others stipulated in previous years, the total remuneration received by Álvarez in 2020 amounts to 6,877 million euros, 16.84% below the 8.27 million in 2019.
Banco Santander lost 8,771 million euros in 2020, compared to the 6,515 million it gained in 2019, after increasing the endowments to 12,173 million to face the coronavirus crisis and also assume an accounting deterioration of the value of its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, United States and Poland worth 12,600 million that does not affect solvency. The entity closed the year with the highest losses in its history. Excluding accounting adjustments, ordinary profit stood at 5,081 million in 2020, 38% less than a year ago.
Echenique leaves the bank with 1.8 million compensation
Apart from the cut by Botín and Álvarez, the rest of Santander’s directors decided that their salary would be reduced by 20% in 2020. Among the best paid, Rodrigo Echenique stands out, who left the board in December 2019, with a remuneration of 2.37 million, 46.7% less than in 2019. This collection includes a compensation of 1.8 million, according to bank documents. Linked to the bank since 1988, Echenique has left the board and the presidency of Santander Spain, after the legal integration of Banco Popular. Since then, he has been an external director and a member of the appointments committee.
The fourth best paid has been Luis Isasi, Echenique’s replacement, with a salary of 943,000 euros. There is no comparison because he was not at Santander in 2019, as he was signed from Morgan Stanley. The fifth position by salary is the director is Bruce Carnegie-Brown, vice president and coordinating director, with 595,000 euros, 15% less.
In total, the entity’s board of directors received 19.07 million euros in 2020, 29.8% below the 27.18 million the previous year.
