ING chief executive Ralph Hamers told broadcaster Nos on Thursday he had shown guts by accepting a pay rise 20% less than he had been promised.

‘I think it shows guts to accept a pay cut of 20%,’ Hamers said, when asked if it would not have been braver to turn down a pay rise altogether. It is up to the supervisory board to decide how much he should be paid, the CEO added.

Hamer’s basic salary is going up from €1.27m to €1.63m following changes in the rules which limit bonuses to 20% of salary.

‘ING is an international company and we need international people, including from outside the banking sector,’ he said. ‘So we need to look carefully at what is being paid in other environments.’

Hamers said the discussion about executive pay in the Netherlands is an emotional one and not easy to solve. However, the bank’s ‘top’ is now earning 5% to 7% less than before the start of the economic crisis, he said.

Earlier this year, six members of ABN Amro’s executive board agreed to forgo a €100,000 pay rise because of the public outcry.

Banking unions say the pay rises for senior executives are inappropriate at a time when the banks are shedding thousands of jobs.