Eric Daniels was awarded a £1.45m bonus before he left Lloyds, but has not yet received the money. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesLloyds Banking Group has started legal steps to claw back some of a £1.45m bonus paid to its former chief executive, Eric Daniels, in 2010.
The bonus was awarded to Daniels just weeks before his successor, António Horta-Osório, decided the bank should take a £3.2bn provision for payment protection insurance mis-selling, which drove Lloyds into a loss.
Lloyds had admitted on the day it announced the provision that it might consider whether any payments would need to be reviewed in light of the provision, and is now reported to have written to Daniels's lawyers to inform him that it wants to claw back some of his bonus.
It is highly unusual for companies to successfully reclaim parts of bonuses that have been paid. Lloyds said: "As part of an ongoing process, the implications on compensation are being considered by the remuneration committee and will be determined by the board in due course, in line with the FSA code on compensation."
When Daniels was awarded the bonus – which was 63.3% of his maximum potential payout – in February 2011 it was deferred for three years, which means he not yet received the money.
Horta-Osório is currently on a leave of absence due to fatigue. Lloyds Banking Group may also claw back bonuses from his temporary stand-in, the outgoing finance director Tim Tookey, and the former retail banking head Helen Weir, according to a report.
Lloyds is attempting to hire George Culmer, who has resigned from Royal & Sun Alliance, to replace Tookey although he is yet to settle his terms of appointment. He has around £5m of share options at RSA.
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