Standard Charted chief executive, Bill Winters, has agreed to take a cut of 50 per cent, or £237,000, to his annual pension allowance following shareholder pressure.

Winters’ allowance will be cut from 20 per cent of salary to 10 per cent following concerns about executive pensions cited by the Investment Association at the end of September.

The firm’s group chief financial officer, Andy Halford, also took a 50 per cent pension cut, from £294,000 to £147,000.

The changes will take effect from 1 January 2020 and will bring the executives’ pensions in line with the rest of the workforce.

In an announcement, Standard Chartered confirmed that no compensation would be paid to the executive directors for the reduction in their pension allowances.

Commenting, Standard Chartered PLC Remuneration Committee chair, Christine Hodgson, said: "I would like to thank Bill and Andy for their willingness to agree to these changes and to thank our shareholders and their representatives for engaging constructively with the Remuneration Committee, and for the strong support that they share with the board for our executive directors.

“The changes we are making will align the current executive directors' pension allowances with other UK employees with effect from 1 January 2020.

“This will result in a material change to Bill and Andy's pension allowances as well as an 8 per cent reduction in their total remuneration opportunity."

The Standard Chartered Remuneration Committee had previously been called on by the Work and Pensions Select Committee to answer questions on why it had proposed policy that would have seen their executives receiving contributions four times higher than the rest of its workforce.

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