antonio horta-osorio
Antonio Horta-Osorio pocketed a bonus worth £1.7m for 2013, which is in share awards and deferred for five years Reuters

The bonus paid to Antonio Horta-Osorio for 2013 is 378 times the average payout for staff at Lloyds Banking Group, which is part owned by the UK taxpayer.

Horta-Osorio, group chief executive, was handed £1.7m in share awards, deferred for five years, as his 2013 bonus. Across the whole of Lloyds, the average bonus was £4,500.

The chief executive's bonus is conditional on the share price of Lloyds staying above 73.6p on average in the coming five years, and the UK government selling half of its stake over the same time period.

Lloyds Banking Group's bonus pool was 8% higher in 2013 at a total of £395m, according to the firm's annual report and accounts.

Winfried Bischoff, chairman of Lloyds, said the bigger bonuses were in recognition of improved financial results for 2013. Lloyds posted a £415m profit before tax for the year, up from a £606m loss in 2012.

The UK government bailed out Lloyds during the financial crisis when it ran into difficulty. After selling off a portion of its stake in 2013 for £3.2bn, it still owns 33% of the bank.

The sale in September was hailed as a value-for-money success by the National Audit Office (NAO), a public finances watchdog, despite the taxpayer losing £230m in the deal.

It is thought that Chancellor George Osborne is keen to sell the rest of the stake in 2014 to a mix of institutional and retail investors.

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