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BUILDING society bosses have been let off the hook as new curbs on boardroom fat cats take effect in January. The share owners of banks such as Abbey National and Alliance & Leicester will be required to approve pay deals for their top brass. But the members of dozens of building societies and other mutual bodies will not have the same veto over directors' pay.
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This is because new government rules aimed at stamping out boardroom excess do not apply to mutual organisations.
And so far, only a handful of the bosses of the 65 building societies have agreed to ask members to approve the six-figure pay packets that many directors award themselves.
As our table shows, just two of the 15 biggest societies have made a commitment to include bosses' pay for a separate vote on ballot papers for boardroom elections in 2003.
Other societies, such as Chelsea, whose boss Michael Bage earned £389,000 in 2001, have yet to decide, or have already ruled out the ballot, fuelling long-standing criticism that building societies attract second-rate managers.
'Building societies are a law unto themselves,' says Tim Tanner, a veteran campaigner for building society reform. Tanner has stood for election as a rebel candidate for the boards of the Portman and Nationwide, so far without success.
'Societies are lightly regulated and they have a huge public relations machine aimed at preserving the status quo,' he says. 'What building society directors are really best at is telling everyone how good they are.'
The small number of women among societies' top executives reflects Tanner's image of a sleepy, old-fashioned sector.
There are no female chief executives in any of the 65 societies. Of the 148 executive directors, just four (three%) are women. They are better represented among nonexecutive directors, but still account for only 53 out of 400.
Tanner is not surprised that few societies have chosen to allow members to vote on bosses' pay - 'but it's a very welcome move if they do,' he says.
The Building Societies Association, led by directorgeneral Adrian Coles, says it is up to individual societies to decide whether pay is included in ballots.
'The vote would be a voluntary step,' says Coles. He argues that pay packages for bosses of mutuals are not as complicated as those of bank bosses because they do not receive share options.
However most of the executives we list here receive performance fees and other benefits such as company cars and subsidised mortgages on top of basic pay.
Almost all belong to generous final salary pension schemes, even if the schemes in some cases - such as Coventry and Leeds & Holbeck - are no longer open to new employees.
Whether societies include executive pay details on the financial statements sent to members each year is shown in the fourth column of the table. About half do this, though more have promised to do so from next year.
Nationwide boss Philip Williamson, head of the country's biggest building society, has a pay package of more than £500,000. This is far less than the earnings of his predecessor, Brian Davis, who retired in the middle of Nationwide's financial year and who was paid £1,109,000. It is not just building societies that are exempt from the rules that will give members the opportunity to have a say on executive pay - mutual life insurers and friendly societies also escape.
Standard Life, Europe's biggest mutual insurer, pays its present boss, Iain Lumsden, a package worth £700,000. His predecessor, Scot Bell, was paid more than £900,000.
*Includes long-term bonus payment.
**Present chief is Neville Richardson
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