Last year, the nine-person team earned £120,067 less, at £1,322,696.
Chief executive Natalie Ceeney succeeded her deputy Tony Boorman in being the highest paid executive member on a total remuneration of £256,064, after she had received a pay rise of about £20,000 this year.
The report said: “In line with the recommendations of the Hutton Review into Fair Pay in the Public Sector (March 2011) all members of the executive team have their remuneration structured so that an element of their salary is ‘at risk’.
“15% of their salary is held back until the end of the year – and is paid only if the organisation’s performance is agreed by the board to be satisfactory.
“The level of payment is determined by the nomination and remuneration committee who can award up to an additional 5% of salary to individual executives for exceptional performance.”
The 12-person FOS board, which is made up of non-executive members, also received more money this year compared with last.
The board received a combined £277,803 in fees, £8,600 more than last year, however it concluded in its internal review in July 2012 that it needed to downsize.
It concluded that “the board was performing well overall, but that there was scope for some change to the board itself and to the quality committee” and agreed to reduce the board size to six non-executive directors, including the chairman.
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) posted a gross surplus of £818,000 in 2013. This was in sharp contrast to last year’s surplus of £45m, which included a £25m special levy to combat volatility.
The FOS has recently changed the way it collects fees from the four big banks to combat unprecedented PPI claims and the resultant volatility. It now estimates fees and collects them in advance quarter yearly.
A FOS spokesperson said: “We are a not-for-profit organisation. The figures are simply a snapshot of money in versus money out at the time. The story is not in the black and white, it’s in the fact that complaint numbers have risen and we are doing all we can to resolve things well for businesses and the consumer.”
