With 31% jump, HDFC Bank's Aditya Puri top gainer in salary hike

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Bank's Aditya Puri saw the maximum jump in remuneration among private bank chiefs in 2015-16, with a 31% growth at Rs 9.73 crore.

Axis Bank's Shikha Sharma came in second, whose compensation package jumped 28% to Rs 5.50 crore.

The decision to give up bonuses after Reserve Bank India (RBI) mandated asset quality review (AQR) saw Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar's salary decline 22% to Rs 4.79 crore in the year gone by, as declared in bank annual reports.

If the Rs1.16-crore bonus Kochhar received in 2014-15 is excluded, her remuneration grew 14.47% in 2015-16.

Yes Bank chief Rana Kapoor saw a 20.76% hike in remuneration at Rs 5.67 crore. For Kotak Mahindra Bank's Uday Kotak, the corresponding figure was over 9% at Rs 2.47 crore in 2015-16.

Some market watchers say much of the top management compensation package was decided in early part of the fiscal before RBI's AQR kicked in.

The RBI has initiated the AQR exercise to help banks clean up their balancesheets.

Sharma has let it be known that the asset quality improvement will be gradual.

Compared to the bank's median salary, Kochhar's salary is 100 times that of an average employee while Puri's is 179 times. HDFC Bank had 311 employees earning over Rs 60 lakh a year while for Axis Bank, it stood at 163, their annual reports showed.