Het nieuwe opperhoofd van RBS:
Uit The Guardian van 1 oktober
New RBS chief Ross McEwan pledges to increase bailed-out bank's lending
Stephen Hester's replacement marks his first day in charge with promise to lend more to businesses and households
Ross McEwan is being paid a salary of £1m a year as the new boss of RBS. Photograph: Ian Macaulay/PA
Ross McEwan began his first day as chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland with a pledge to increase the bailed out bank's lending and the admission he felt a "high level of trepidation".
His contract, made publicly available on the day he officially replaced Stephen Hester, shows the bank had started paying him as if he was in charge from 1 August.
It also confirmed McEwan, who was recruited a year ago to run the retail bank, can earn just under £1.4m a year as chief executive – £1m in salary, £26,250 in benefits and £250,000 in pension contributions – before being awarded any shares under a long-term incentive plan.
When he was appointed to the role in August, McEwan said he would not take an annual bonus for the rest of 2013 and the whole of 2014.
His pay in his previous role running the retail bank was not disclosed although he was handed £3m in shares to buy him out of his deals at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia from where Hester hired him.
McEwan paid tribute to his predecessor in an address to staff as he admitted to "high levels of trepidation". Hester had a very big smile on his face on his last day on Monday, McEwan said, as he told employees "we need to repay the taxpayers for their faith in this organisation".
Ross McEwan's speech to staff. Source: RBS
Taxpayers own 81% of the bank, and shares were trading at 363p as McEwan took charge – well below the 500p average price at which the government amassed its stake in the bank in 2008 and 2009.
McEwan told staff in a memo: "I want RBS to stand firmly behind its customers with the explicit goal of helping them succeed. That includes an increase in our lending. We must do everything possible to support the recovery and future growth of the UK."
McEwan began his new role on the same day as the new finance director, Nathan Bostock, also promoted internally, whose contract shows he will earn £1m a year before bonuses – £765,000 in salary, £26,250 of benefits and £267,000 for his pension.
Bostock, hired in 2009, has the bank's office at 280 Bishopsgate in London listed as his normal place of work – even though the bank's headquarters are technically in Edinburgh. His predecessor Bruce van Saun, who has moved to run the bank's US arm Citizens, in adition had the Edinburgh office listed.
McEwan has both locations in his contract although all of the new board directors have clauses in their contract requiring them to travel as necessary.
London was cited as Bostock's normal place of work in his previous contract and this was not changed following his promotion to the board. McEwan made no reference to the ongoing review commissioned from Rothschild by the Treasury into whether RBS should be broken up into a good and bad bank. But he indicated that the bank would keep an international presence while retaining a UK focus.
"My aim is to make RBS one of the easiest banks to do business with," he said.