A performance bonus of Rs 2.20 crore spikes ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar’s total remuneration by 63.8 percent for the fiscal year ending March 2017 at Rs 7.85 crore. In other words, Kochhar drew Rs 65 lakh a month, or Rs 2.1 lakh per day in FY17.

Apart from the basic salary, the remuneration includes allowances and perquisites and contribution to provident, superannuation and gratuity funds. This, however, excludes employee stock options which stood at Rs 13.75 lakh subject to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval.

In FY16, Kochhar was the third-highest paid banking chief after HDFC Bank's head Aditya Puri and Axis Bank's captain Shikha Sharma. Puri earned a remuneration of Rs 9.7 crore for FY16 while Sharma earned Rs 5.5 crore during the year. Kochhar's pay was significantly lower at Rs 4.79 crore in FY16, according to the bank's annual report.

Without the bonus and other variables, Kochhar’s basic salary increased by 15 percent to Rs 2.67 crore in FY17 as against Rs 2.32 crore for FY16.

However, ICICI Bank clarified that, "Payment of performance bonus is deferred over a multi-year period. The total compensation paid to our MD & CEO in FY17 stood at Rs 6.09 crore."

The hike in the total remuneration in FY17 was primarily driven by the performance bonus which the ICICI Bank CEO and the entire senior management had forgone a year ago owing to the bank’s weak financial results.

ICICI Bank had posted ones of its worst quarterly performance in the decade with a net profit drop of 87 percent for the March quarter in FY16. After forgoing the bonus in FY16, the senior management got a total performance bonus of Rs 7.55 crore in FY17.

The percentage increase in the median remuneration of all employees in the FY17 was around 12 percent.

The annual report highlighted that the average percentage increase made in the salaries of total employees other than the Key Managerial Personnel (senior management) for fiscal 2017 was around 10 percent, while the average increase in the remuneration of the Key Managerial Personnel was in the range of 12-15 percent.

Senior management salaries

The bank's Executive Director NS Kannan got a remuneration of Rs 5.39 crore, a hike of 62 percent from Rs 3.32 crore a year ago. His basic salary increase was 15 percent at Rs 1.76 crore.

Executive Director Vishakha Mulye’s total salary was at Rs 5.29 crore. She had joined the bank in December 2015 and hence her hike is not comparable.

Former executive director heading the retail portfolio Rajiv Sabharwal, who left ICICI Bank on January 31, 2017, earned a salary of Rs 3.48 crore as against Rs 3.26 crore a year ago. He did not get performance bonus for both the years.

Sabharwal's successor Anup Bagchi, who joined the bank on November 1, 2016, and assumed office as Executive Director from February 1, 2017, was paid Rs 2.02 crore, earning a bonus of Rs 56 lakh.

Former Human Resources head and Executive Director K Ramkumar, who took an early retirement, was paid a total of Rs 3.88 crore, with a bonus of Rs 48.5 lakh.