Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), has been awarded £1.5million of share options, on top of his £750,000 salary.
The bank, which was criticised last week for paying out former chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, a £693,000 annual pension, awarded Sir Philip options for around 5.1m shares at 29p each vesting in three years
Last week, RBS announced total losses of £24.1billion in 2008, and its shares closed at 22.6p yesterday, 2 March 2009.
UK Financial Investments, the body set up to manage the government's bank stakes, has supported the options being awarded to Sir Philip because of the 'no reward for failure' conditions written into his employment contract.
The clause means that the RBS board can withhold compensation if Sir Philip fails in his role.
A spokesperson at RBS said: "Philip Hampton's reward package is designed to align his own interests firmly with the long-term interests of all our shareholders. It reflects the scale and complexity of the job he agreed to do at a critical time for the company."