Mr Olley will receive a basic salary of £730,000 this year (the same as predecessor Chris Hill) but bonuses and share options could boost his pay package to nearly £5m in 2024 if targets are met.

Mr Olley took over from predecessor Chris Hill this month.

The annual report, published this week, also reveals that retiring CEO Chris Hill, who stepped down from the board in August, is in line for a pay, bonus and share package of up to £2.524m this year (£1.9m in 2022) if targets are met.

Mr Hill will receive no payment for termination of his contract, although HL will pay his legal fees of up to £20,000, and he will be eligible for a pro-rated annual bonus for 2024. His notice period expired this month.

The salary details comes as the company, which has more than 1.8m clients, has been hit by a declining share price. The company share price, 695p at the close yesterday, has fallen by 14% in the past month and nearly 20% this year.

In other salary details in the annual report, chair Deanna Oppenheimer is due to earn a fee of £334,500 in 2023 (unchanged from 2022).

Chief financial officer Amy Sterling is set to earn a total package of up to £1.5m in 2023 and could potentially earn up to £3.156m in 2024 if targets and bonuses are met.

Both Ms Sterling and Mr Olley will only earn the maximum package if the company’s share price rises by 50% as the company has introduced a “share appreciation” element to their packages to try to boost the share price. Some 15% of Mr Olley’s package, for example, is now linked to a rise in the firm’s depressed share price.

According to the report, HL plans to shift top executive pay towards greater reliance on, “sustainable growth and returns” through the introduction of a new Performance Share Plan (PSP) alongside an accompanying reduction in annual bonus. As part of the proposals for the CEO Mr Olley’s annual bonus would be reduced from 400% to 250% of base salary.

Moni Mannings, chair of the remuneration committee, said the bonus scheme changes were influenced by engagement with senior shareholders during the year. The shareholders are not named but HL’s original founders, Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown, remain shareholders with Mr Hargreaves owning just under 20% of the business.

Because of the cost of living increases during the year the company paid a further standalone support payment to over 1,600 staff, the second support payment in 12 months. It also increased salaries by 7% for over 700 staff in exchange for discretionary bonus loss and brought forward the timing of staff annual salary reviews. The average staff salary increase was 4.8%.

Mr Olley said in the report that while new to the role he was, “very much in listening mode, speaking with our clients, shareholders and colleagues to understand their views and insights.” He says he will be focused on four key areas: driving client and asset growth, increasing the pace of change to provide additional client value, striving to be “fitter and leaner as a business” and focusing on staff development.

He said the rising cost-of-living was putting pressure on the UK’s financial sector and people have less disposable income. Investor confidence is low and the outlook remains uncertain, he said.

He added that despite this backdrop, the firm’s Active Savings cash platform had attracted record new business of £3.2 billion in the year however net flows onto the HL platform had been hit, in common with other platforms.

Revenue for the full year was £735.1 million, up 26% on the prior year (2022: £583m). Underlying pre-tax profit rose 47% to £438.8 million (2022: £297.5m) and statutory pre-tax profit increased by 50% to £402.7 million (2022: £269.2m).

The Bristol-based firm now employs more than 2,000 staff and has 1.8m clients with 877,000 clients accessing HL services through the HL app.