His basic salary stands at Rs 7.26 crore as against a salary of Rs 8.12 crore which he received in the previous year 2016-17
India's second largest private lender HDFC Bank's top leader Aditya Puri has taken a 10.5 percent reduction in his basic salary for the financial year 2017-18.
His basic salary stands at Rs 7.26 crore as against a salary of Rs 8.12 crore which he received in the previous year 2016-17.
Puri is the bank's chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD).
His total remuneration, including bank's stock options (minus those exercised) and other variables declined by almost four percent to Rs 9.65 crore. This compares with Rs 10.05 crore in the year ending March 2017, as per information in the bank's annual report.
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This is still a handsome amount as compared to the country's biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman's paltry remuneration of Rs 14.26 lakh per annum (reduced from Rs 14.70 lakh in FY17).
During the year, Puri also exercised his employee stock options worth Rs 31.4 crore. In FY17, Puri exercised stock options worth Rs 57.4 crore.
HDFC Bank chief's average total earnings per day comes to Rs 2.64 lakh per day from last year's Rs 2.75 lakh per day.
HDFC Bank's performance
Although the difference from a year ago may not seem large, the reduction in salary comes despite the bank's robust performance especially at a time when HDFC Bank's peers such as ICICI Bank and Axis Bank are struggling with their profitability and mounting bad loans.
For the fourth quarter ending March 2018, the net profit increased by 20 percent to Rs 4,799 crore.
In the full fiscal year from April 2017 to March 2018, HDFC Bank's net profit rose by 20 percent over last year to Rs 17,487 crore.
Average profit of the bank for the past three years stood at Rs 18,246 crore.
Puri (67), who has held the position of the CEO and MD at HDFC Bank since 1992, is set to end his tenure on October 31, 2020.
The bank has announced its plans to begin the process of finding Puri's successor 18-24 months ahead of his retirement.
"With respect to the tenure of the current Managing Director ending in October 2020, the Board will identify a successor and work to ensure that this is done in a manner that will allow appropriate time for an effective transition of responsibilities," the bank said.
Other top management salaries
The rest of the senior management such as Paresh Sukthankar, deputy MD and Kaizad Bharucha, executive director of the bank earned nearly 14 percent and 10.5 percent lower basic salary from a year ago.
Sukthankar's total compensation stood at Rs 5.30 crore in FY18, down from Rs 6.08 crore.
Whereas, Bharucha's total remuneration was at Rs 4.33 crore, from 4.66 crore a year ago.
In FY18, HDFC Bank's total outlay to the senior management declined by 7.2 percent to Rs 19.28 crore (from Rs 20.80 crore in FY17).
Puri's leadership
Puri left a lucrative Citigroup position working for two years to become the founding CEO of HDFC Bank back in 1992.
Under his leadership, HDFC Bank has become the largest valued bank in India and among the top three of India’s largest firms by market capitalisation. The market value of the bank currently stands at about Rs 5.22 lakh crore.
Last month, Puri's name featured in the list of world’s 30 best CEOs in the ‘Growth Leaders’ category by premier financial magazine Barron’s.