The Canadian Press

The chief executive of Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY) earned 19% more in 2009 than a year earlier, even as the annual profit of Canada’s largest bank fell 15%.

RBC’s annual disclosure shows CEO Gord Nixon’s base salary was unchanged at $1.4 million and he received a $9-million bonus consisting entirely of equity and options in the company. No cash bonus was paid to Nixon in 2009.

That compared with a $7.35-million bonus in 2008, including $2.4 million that was paid in cash.

Nixon earned a total of $10.4 million in 2009, including share-based awards, option-based awards and deferred share-based compensation, compared with $8.75 million in 2008.

Nixon also received nearly $1.7 million in pension value and $41,885 in other compensation for 2009 to bring the total value of his compensation package to $12.1 million compared with $9.6 million in 2008.

The bank saw a profit of $3.9 billion in its 2009 financial year, down from $4.6 billion in 2008. Annual revenue was $29.1 billion, up from $21.6 billion in the previous year.

The bank’s top-paid executive was not its CEO, but rather Mark Standish, co-head of RBC Capital Markets. Standish earned a salary of $216,380, a $4.7-million cash bonus and $9 million in equity- and option-based awards for a total of $14 million, up from $6.3 million in 2008.

His partner, RBC Capital Markets co-head Doug McGregor, earned a base salary of $200,000, a $4.4-million cash bonus and $8.4 million in equity- and option-based awards for a total of $13 million, up from $5.2 million in 2008.

Standish and McGregor took over the investment banking division at RBC last year after the retirement of Chuck Winograd.