Crorepati Bankers: Which banker got paid the most, while which banker decided to forego salary?

HDFC Bank's Aditya Puri emerged as the highest grossing banker among the top three private sector lenders in his retirement year with total emoluments of Rs 13.82 crore. His successor Sashidhar Jagdishan, who took over as the chief executive and managing director of the largest private sector lender on October 27, 2020 grossed a salary of Rs 4.77 crore for the fiscal year, which included payments as a group head till his elevation. Puri's overall payments included Rs 3.5 crore as post-retirement benefits.

Its immediate rival ICICI Bank's MD and CEO Sandeep Bakhshi "voluntarily relinquished" his fixed compensation of basic and supplementary allowances for FY21, which had seen wide-scale impact of the COVID pandemic, as per the second largest lender's annual report.

Bakhshi, however, did receive allowances and perquisites amounting to Rs 38.38 lakh, the document said, adding he also got Rs 63.60 lakh as performance bonus from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company as deferred variable pay for FY17 and FY18.

Amitabh Chaudhry, who has been leading the third largest private sector lender Axis Bank, got paid Rs 6.52 crore, the bank's annual report said, adding that the top management was not given any salary increment in FY21.

Data available for 'crorepati' bankers, or those earning above Rs 8.5 lakh a month, revealed that HDFC Bank had 200 executives in this exclusive club, including key management personnel, serving officials and those who left the lender midway through the fiscal year.