Santander’s UK chief executive, Nathan Bostock, will have his pension allowance cut by over £400,000 over the next two years in order to meet new Investment Association (IA) guidelines.

First reported by the Financial Times, Bostock’s £436,000 pension cut is expected to be the highest of any UK banking executive.

Currently receiving a cash lump sum worth 35 per cent of his salary in lieu of a traditional pension, this is expected to be reduced incrementally, to 22 per cent in 2020 and 9 per cent in 2021.

Bostock’s pension allowance was under review last month and follows similar cuts by both Lloyds and Barclay’s executives.

Lloyds Banking Group chief executive, Antonio Horta-Ososrio, will be taking a cut from 33 to 15 per cent of base salary to meet the new IA guidance, while Barclays chief executive, Jes Staley, will take a cut of over £200,000 from 2020, representing a 17 per cent allowance.

Despite Bostock’s current allowance of 35 per cent being comparable to peers at Lloyds and Barclays, his higher base salary of £1.7m has led to a much higher cut in absolute terms.

Commenting on the plans, a Santander spokesperson stated: ““We are supportive of The IA guidelines around aligning executive pensions with the wider workforce. Our remuneration arrangements will be reported in the usual way in our annual report, published early next year.”

HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland have also confirmed plans to review their executive pensions under the new guidelines, with all five of the UKs largest high street banks now expected to have lowered their executive pay by 2020.

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