Axis Bank CEO Shikha Sharma gets 7.8% hike in basic pay

Axis Bank managing director and CEO Shikha Sharma saw her basic salary increase by 7.8 per cent to Rs 2.91 crore last fiscal, according to bank's annual report for 2017-18.

Her basic salary stood at over Rs 2.70 crore in the preceding fiscal.

Among others, Sharma got Rs 97.05 lakh as house rent allowance, Rs 14.76 lakh as leave fare concession, perquisites (excluding ESOPs) worth over Rs 32.08 lakh and deferred variable pay (for 2013-14 and 2014-15) of Rs 44.10 lakh during 2017-18, the report showed.

Perquisites include bank's furnished accommodation, club fees, personal accident insurance, loans, use of car and telephone, medical reimbursement, travelling and halting allowance, among others.

Besides, there were superannuation allowances equivalent to 10 per cent of the basic pay, provident fund as 12 per cent of the basic pay and gratuity equivalent to one month's salary for each completed year of service.

Gross salary of the chief executive came in at Rs 4.88 crore for the 2017-18 fiscal. Additionally, there were 5,40,000 stock options in her portfolio during the year.

In the report, Shikha Sharma underlined some major challenges the Indian banking sector as a whole facing on multiple fronts, including operational and assets quality front.

The bank's MD and CEO said that the fiscal 2018 was a mixed bag for the lender.

Apart from the lingering asset quality problems, there were some serious issues around fraud and operational misses that came to the fore towards the later part of the year, she said.

While these challenges are real, the banking industry remains a force for inclusive growth in the country, she added.

"The bank has taken significant steps in fiscal year 2018 to get past the asset quality issues of this cycle, and the top priority for us in fiscal year 2019 will be to achieve normalisation of credit risk. The second focus area would be to deliver profitable growth," Sharma said in the annual report.

Axis Bank would enhance its capabilities to strengthen operational risk management and re-invent corporate bank driven by technology."The fourth deliverable for fiscal year 2019 is to continue investing in digital capabilities, analytics and our subsidiaries to drive future growth," she said in her message.