The IPO of NIBC last Friday is proving to be very lucrative for the merchant bank’s top executives, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Tuesday.

The three members of NIBC’s management board are to be awarded stock bonuses each worth more than €1m for staying with the bank for four years. The bonus amounts to 180% of their fixed gross salaries.

In addition, three members of the bank’s executive committee – one layer lower than the top – are to receive bonuses for remaining with NIBC amounting to 165% of their pay package.

Given the furore stoked earlier this month by the proposal of ING to raise its CEO Ralph Hamers’s remuneration by 50% to €3m, this is a bold move, the FD said. High remuneration in the banking sector is a ‘hyper-touchy’ subject, the paper added.

An NIBC spokesman said the move was made to ensure the long-term stability of the bank. Yet the contracts of all three of the top executives have some time to run, the paper points out.