Clara Furse, the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, last year took home £1.17m (€1.71m), up from £836,000 the previous year, according to information drawn from the London Stock Exchange's annual report.

Furse, who spent the first half of last year resisting the advances of the Deutsche Börse and its chief executive Werner Seifert, took home £402,000 in salary and £763,000 in performance bonuses in the year ending March 2006. Her package was up 40% on the previous year, when she received £374,000 basic and £460,000 in performance bonuses.