COVID-19 impact: IDFC FIRST Bank's senior management takes pay cut

IDFC FIRST Bank's senior management has volunteered to take a 10 per cent pay cut for the financial year 2020-21 amid the coronavirus crisis.

In a statement, the bank said that its MD and CEO V Vaidyanathan has offered to take a pay cut of 30 per cent in his compensation package, including fixed compensation as well as all allowances.

Vaidyanathan said, “Such pay cut forms part of the bank's austerity measures which start at the top. Further, we feel the pain our customer— big, small, micro enterprises and people at large -- are going through, and we also want to be empathetic to the situation."

On the employee front, the bank said it has honoured all offers made to new hires before the pandemic, including all lateral hires as well as 550 management trainees.

"The bank also paid 100 per cent of the variable pay to 78.2 per cent of employees for the period pertaining to FY 19-20 despite the arrival of the pandemic. Variable pay for FY 19-20 was cut more progressively for employees with greater seniority, and bonus for senior management was cut by 65 per cent of the eligible amount," said the statement.

It said that the management is reviewing the impact of the pandemic every day and is making all efforts to safeguard customer interests.

The bank's branches and customer service teams have been operating at near-full capacity with minimal reduction in services throughout the lockdown to meet its customers' needs, IDFC FIRST Bank added.