* RBS releases details of long-term share award plan
* CEO Hester could get 7.7 million sterling for 2010 awards
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By Steve Slater
LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland Chief Executive Stephen Hester could get up to 4.5 million pounds ($7.2 million) in shares under a long-term incentive plan (LTIP) unveiled on Tuesday by the part-nationalised bank.
The award is in addition to the 2 million pound bonus in deferred shares announced by RBS last month as well as Hester's base salary of 1.2 million pounds. The LTIP is dependent on performance but could reignite controversy over banker pay.
RBS is under intense scrutiny on how much it pays executives and staff after it was bailed out by the UK taxpayer and is 83 percent owned by the government. The bank said Hester's remuneration was justified.
"These awards follow exhaustive consultation with our shareholders and we believe they appropriately balance demonstrating restraint while remaining fully supportive of our leadership through the RBS turnaround plan," a spokeswoman for the bank said.
The award comes a day after UK rival Barclays said its Chief Executive Bob Diamond and two key lieutenants were paid 28 million pounds last year and received shares worth over 75 million pounds for past performance.
Diamond could get as much as 13.5 million pounds under his 2010 awards. He was paid a bonus of 6.5 million pounds, a base salary of 250,000 pounds, and could get 6.75 million pounds worth of shares if his own LTIP pays out in full.
Politicians and unions slammed the size of Barclays' awards, which come after banks said they would show restraint on pay.
Hester's LTIP award of up to 10.1 million RBS shares vests in March 2014 and is subject to hitting performance targets based on shareholder return, profits of the core bank and other balance sheet, risk and strategy measures.
RBS's highest-paid executive after Hester was Bruce van Saun, finance director, who could get almost 5 million pounds from the 2010 awards. Van Saun's base salary is 725,000 pounds, he was awarded a bonus of 1.35 million pounds in shares, and his LTIP could pay up to 2.8 million pounds of shares.
Under new UK disclosure rules RBS will disclose more details of pay for executive and senior staff with its annual report next week. (Editing by Jon Loades-Carter and David Holmes) ($1=.6189 Pound)