The chief executive of Bank of Ireland Richie Boucher was paid €910,000 last year. The annual report of the bank released today reveals Boucher waived €67,000 from his annual salary, cutting his overall pay to €843,000.

He has handed back part of his salary for the last 3 years and the report says he will also waive some of his salary this year.

The revelation of the scale of Boucher's pay comes a week after a report by consultants Mercer for the Department of Finance said top bank bosses were paid below their international counterparts. However the Finance Minister Michael Noonan has ordered Bank of Ireland, AIB and Permanent TSB to cut up to 10% from their staff costs to reflect the fact that they are loss-making.

Pension & other perks

According to the annual report Mr. Boucher was paid a basic salary of €690,000, pension contributions of €186,000 and other perks including a car allowance of €34,000.

The board of directors at the bank shared €2.5 million in pay, pensions and fees in 2012, the report shows.

The two public interest directors on the board - former Fianna Fáil Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh and former civil servant Tom Considine - received fees of €90,000 and €98,000.

Bank of Ireland earlier this month reported a loss for 2012 of about €1.5 billion.