RBS Chief Waives Bonus After Labour Seeks Parliamentary Vote

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hester decided to waive his 963,000-pound ($1.5 million) bonus after the U.K.’s opposition Labour Party said it would ask Parliament to vote on the award.

Hester, 51, has been at the center of a storm since the announcement Jan. 27 that he would get a bonus for 2011. Britain’s biggest taxpayer-controlled bank has fallen 36 percent in the past year to about half what the government paid for its stake in the lender. Chairman Philip Hampton has waived his 1.4 million-pound stock award, and the government hopes the other board members also decide to forgo their bonuses, said a person familiar with ministers’ thinking.