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Deutsche Bank is seeking to increase the pay of its supervisory board chair by more than 40 per cent, despite Alexander Wynaendts already being the highest-paid chair of Germany’s blue-chip Dax companies.
The country’s largest lender plans to ask shareholders at its 2026 annual meeting to approve an increase in Wynaendts’ total supervisory board pay to about €1.4mn, up from €950,000 for 2024, three people briefed on the plans said.
His pay already exceeded that of any of his peers in the Dax 40 last year, with Allianz chair Michael Diekmann earning about €760,000 and Volkswagen’s Hans Dieter Pötsch on around €680,000.
Part of the planned increase would come from raising fixed pay for the chair by between 10 and 20 per cent, a change that would also lift the basic remuneration for other supervisory board members, one person familiar with the discussions said.
The rest would stem from changes to how committee work is remunerated. The chair currently does not receive any additional pay for chairing committees, while other supervisory board members receive between €100,000 and €150,000 per committee they lead.
Wynaendts heads both the chairman’s committee and the nomination committee and is expected to continue in those roles.
The proposal had not yet been finalised and would be put forward along with other resolutions when Deutsche publishes the notice of its 2026 shareholder meeting, the people added.
Both the bank and Wynaendts declined to comment.
A person familiar with Deutsche’s position said the planned pay rise was aimed at keeping the role competitive internationally, arguing that chairs of supervisory or non-executive boards at other large European banks earn significantly more than Wynaendts.
Wynaendts had been criticised by some investors for holding too many mandates alongside what they viewed as a demanding position at Deutsche.
In response, Wynaendts stepped down as chair of Dutch investment company Puissance Holding, according to a person briefed on the matter, although he remains on the board. He also continues to sit on the boards of Air France-KLM and Uber Technologies.
Brendan Nelson, who was last week confirmed as the chair of Europe’s largest lender HSBC, is paid £1.5mn (€1.7mn) for a role regarded as one of the toughest in banking. Nelson receives no additional fees for his other roles at the bank.
Formerly chief executive of Dutch insurer Aegon, Wynaendts took over as chair of Deutsche in 2022 after years of scandals, litigation and restructuring at Deutsche.
Since his appointment in May that year, the bank’s profitability and share price have recovered and its performance has moved closer to that of large European rivals.
Wynaendts is now grappling with fresh legal fallout from a scandal dating back more than a decade, which relates to Deutsche’s involvement in structuring trades for Monte dei Paschi di Siena.
Several former Deutsche managers have launched claims against the lender, alleging that its actions damaged their careers.
One former senior banker, Dario Schiraldi, is suing Deutsche for €152mn in Frankfurt, while five others have filed lawsuits in London’s High Court seeking hundreds of millions of pounds in damages.
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