NatWest to withhold part of former CEO Alison Rose’s bonus – report

NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG) is planning not to pay much of the purported £10 million in bonus payments due to former chief executive Alison Rose in the wake of the Nigel Farage furore.

The 40% state-owned lender may make an announcement today, Sky News reported overnight, as the board has made a decision not to pay Rose her unvested share-based awards.

She is expected to still receive a sum in the millions of pounds from her basic salary and fixed share allowance.

Rose resigned in July, admitting to a “serious error of judgment” in briefing a BBC journalist about the closure of Farage’s bank account.

Chairman Howard Davies said the decision had been agreed by mutual consent.

The former CEO has reportedly threatened to sue her former employer if it cancels bonus payments on the back of pressure from Farage.

Debanking and data protection
In August it was revealed that the bank will pay around £2.4 million to Rose, with a statement explaining that it would still pay her £1.155 million in salary for the year, £1.155 million in NatWest shares, which she will receive over a five-year period, and £115,566 in pension payments – a total of around £2.43 million.

Rose also reportedly accrued unvested share awards worth roughly £5 million, most of which had been awarded since she became chief executive in 2019.

An investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found NatWest guilty of breaching data protection laws when Rose disclosed details about the planned closure of former UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s bank accounts to a BBC journalist.

Earlier this week the ICO apologised for singling out Rose in its investigation and said it was the bank under investigation not the former CEO.