A banker at Standard Chartered received a £16m pay packet last year, making him the best-paid employee at any British bank.

Karam Butalia, the bank’s former global head of private equity, was given the payment after leaving Standard Chartered early last year.

Butalia received about four times more than Standard Chartered’s chief executive Peter Sands, who earned more than any other British bank boss in 2008.

Details of the enormous pay deal come as Barclays is putting the final touches to a new remuneration policy for all its executives, which is expected to be used as one of the blueprints for banker pay deals by regulators around the world.

The proposals, to be unveiled at the bank’s annual meeting on April 23, will lead to bankers being paid less.

A higher proportion of pay will come from deferred payments made in shares, which can be clawed back if targets are not met. Higher-ranking executives will receive a greater proportion of their pay in equity, and less in cash bonuses or salary.

The plan is expected to propose that senior “rainmakers” in the investment-banking arm, Barclays Capital, will still receive huge pay deals.

However, those working further down the chain, who do not bring in business themselves, are expected to be handed lower incentives.

Standard Chartered’s payout deal for Singapore-based Butalia is believed to have come from a string of lucrative private-equity deals completed over his six years at the bank.

Butalia bought stakes in one of China’s biggest construction firms, an Indian engineering company, a South Korean life assurer, as well as China’s biggest pen manufacturer.

He also engineered a series of deals in joint ventures with Temasek, the Singaporean government-backed investment fund, which is Standard Chartered’s biggest shareholder.

Butalia’s share of the profits on those deals crystallised when he left the bank in February.

TREASURY select committee chairman John McFall has ruled out an investigation into pension enhancements given to former executives at Royal Bank of Scotland including Sir Fred Goodwin, who draws a pension of £703,000 a year. McFall said his committee will focus on finishing its report on the role of the banks and government in the financial crisis, which is due to be published in the next four weeks.

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