* Wholesale head Rees top earner, pay up 6 percent on year
* CEO Sands gets $7.8 million, up 12 percent on 2009
* Top earner below board gets $11.9 million
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By Steve Slater
LONDON, March 25 (Reuters) - Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered Plc paid the head of its investment bank more than $14 million for 2010, while one banker below board level received almost $12 million, its annual report showed on Friday.
Mike Rees, head of Standard Chartered's wholesale bank business, earned $14.1 million last year, up 6 percent from 2009, when he was also the top paid executive.
It makes Rees one of the world's top paid bankers, at a time of fierce criticism of generous remumeration in the industry so soon after the financial crisis. Standard Chartered did not take any taxpayer bailout cash, however, and last year reported an eighth successive record annual profit.
New rules require more of a banker's bonus package to be deferred and paid in shares. Rees's 2010 award included a base pay of $926,000, a bonus of $11 million and up to $2.1 million in shares depending on performance in the next three years.
Sixty percent of the bonus is in deferred shares that can be clawed back, with 20 percent in cash now and 20 percent in upfront shares.
Chief Executive Peter Sands was paid $7.8 million for 2010, up from $6.9 million in 2009, when he gave much of his award to charity.
Standard Chartered's best-paid employee below board level was paid $11.9 million for 2010, almost all in bonus, according to disclosures made by the bank for the first time under new rules. Four other bankers were paid between $7.1 million and $8.3 million each. All five were based outside Britain.
Profits at the London-based bank, which generates more than four-fifths of its profit in Asia and other emerging markets, rose 19 percent last year to $6.1 billion. Growth has largely been due to the wholesale business, which includes investment banking and trade finance operations.
Costs have been rising faster than income, however, and staff costs jumped 17 percent last year as Sands said the bank faces a battle to attract and retain staff in its hot Asian markets from local and international rivals.
Its shares rose 14 percent last year, outperforming a 12 percent fall by the STOXX Europe 600 banking index. (Editing by Will Waterman and David Holmes)