NatWest scraps majority of Dame Alison Rose’s payout after Farage scandal

NatWest is scrapping the majority of Dame Alison Rose’s exit payout, as it seeks to draw a line under the Nigel Farage debanking scandal. NatWest, which is 40% owned by the taxpayer, has stripped more than £7.5 million from its former chief executive’s exit package. Rose will not get “good leaver” status and will forego £7.58 million in unvested share awards and variable remuneration, the bank confirmed this morning. Rose resigned after admitting to making a “serious error of judgement” in speaking to a BBC journalist about Farage’s account with Coutts, a subsidiary of NatWest. As part of this morning’s announcement, the banking group said that no findings of misconduct had been made against its former boss, who is still set to receive her £2.4 million fixed pay package as well as around £800,000 for former bonus shares due to vest in March.

Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd to step down after nearly a decade

Whitney Wolfe Herd is stepping down as chief executive of Bumble, after nearly a decade at the helm of the dating app she founded. Wolfe Herd will hand the reins to Lidiane Jones, an experienced tech executive who is currently CEO of Slack, in January. Now 34, Bumble’s founder became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire when she took the business public in February 2021. Since then, however, the company’s share price has tumbled from the high of $75 reached shortly after the flotation and fell further, to below $13, following the news of the leadership transition. Wolfe Herd will stay on at Bumble as executive chair.

Deal between RMT and rail operators hailed as breakthrough in long-running dispute

There is light at the end of the tunnel in the long-running dispute between the RMT union and train operators, as they reach a possible deal over pay. The “mutually agreed way forward” includes a backdated 2022 pay rise for staff and job security guarantees, and is subject to a member ballot. The current wave of industrial action by rail unions has been rumbling on since June 2022. RMT members will decide in an online referendum whether they want to accept the new offer from the Rail Delivery Group, the body representing train operators.