ANZ paid higher bonuses to its senior executives in 2012, in line with the bank's rise in profit for the year.
The bank's
2012 annual report, released on Friday, shows the average short term bonus paid this year as a percentage of the target was 117 per cent compared with 110 per cent of the target the previous year.
ANZ said the increase, of seven percentage points, "broadly aligns with the year on year increase in underlying profit" of six per cent.
ANZ paid its chief executive, Mike Smith, A$9.7 million last year, down $300,000 over the year. Smith received a higher short-term bonus (up from $1.75 million to $1.9 million) but the bank valued his long-term share grant at lower than the year before.
Most media reported Smith's 2012 pay as $10.1 million, a $400,000 rise. But the $9.7 million figure, reported on a "statutory basis", includes changes in share values. Banking Day regards this number as the best basis for comparison. Shares are a key component of the pay of all the CEOs of the Big Four banks.
Smith's 2012 pay is likely to confirm him as the highest-paid Australian bank CEO.
Smith said in his report in the 2012 shareholder review that ANZ believes "the lower growth business environment that we have seen following the financial crisis will be with us for the foreseeable future."