Lawmakers question Lloyds CEO's remuneration

By Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters) - Senior lawmakers have questioned whether Britain's highest paid bank CEO, Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio, is receiving too generous pension and share awards.

The heads of Britain's work and pensions and business committees wrote a joint letter to Lloyds querying whether the level of awards were fair.

Horta-Osorio had a 2018 pay package worth 6.3 million pounds ($8.2 million).

The intervention from lawmakers comes as pay levels for the bosses of Britain's lenders come under renewed scrutiny and ahead of Lloyds' annual general meeting on May 16, when investors will vote on whether to approve the bank's pay policy.

Lloyds said in February that Horta-Osorio had voluntarily given up a portion of his pension contributions, bringing it down to 33 percent of base salary from 46 percent previously.

However, the lawmakers - Frank Field and Rachel Reeves - questioned in their letter why this contribution was still higher than other Lloyds employees' maximum contribution of 13 percent.

The bank's chief operating officer and chief financial officer also receive higher pension contribution rates at 25 percent, the letter noted.

The lawmakers also queried Horta-Osorio's fixed share award of 1.05 million pounds last year and asked whether it was within the spirit of guidelines issued by the Investment Association.

The letter was addressed to Stuart Sinclair, chair of Lloyds' remuneration committee. The lawmakers also wrote to the Investment Association seeking its views.

Horta-Osorio was paid 169 times as much as the median paid employee at Lloyds on 37,058 pounds last year.

Shareholder advisory group Glass Lewis recommended that investors vote in favour of Lloyds' pay policy at the forthcoming AGM.

A Lloyds representative declined to comment.

($1 = 0.7676 pounds)

(Reporting by Iain Withers; Editing by David Goodman)