The Financial Services Authority (FSA) paid its employees a total of £21,998,813 in annual incentive awards for 2009/2010, an increase of 12% on last year’s figures and 14% of its total salary bill.
The FSA’s annual report also showed there was no standard pay rise awarded to FSA staff during 2009/2010 and 91% of employees did not receive a salary increase in the pay review process.
Following a consultation with its 466 staff members in the final salary pension scheme, the FSA closed this scheme to future accruals as of 1 April 2010 as part of its move to a new reward platform. As of 31 March 2010, the final salary scheme had 466 members and the organisation's money purchase scheme had 2,932.
The FSA’s pension deficit has increased by £23.8m to £112.7m since last year. According to the report, FSA will continue to work with its final salary pension scheme trustees to secure the pension benefits of its employees and mitigate the risk arising from the scheme. It has also committed to raise the annual deficit contribution to £14m from 2010/2011.
The report stated: “During 2010/11 we will be performing a scheme specific valuation as of 31 March 2010 where we will agree a new recovery plan.
“We believe our approach to the management of our pension costs strikes an appropriate balance between our obligations to our staff and fee-payers. We will keep our approach under review.”