Kevin Hayes, finance director of listed hedge-fund manager Man Group, was the best-paid FD in the UK's FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks last year, according to a new survey - earning £2.9m (€3.1m) as the average pay for his peers fell 13%. Directors in the financial services industry were particularly badly hit.

But Hayes' 2008 package fell far short of the £4.65m that Guy Elliott of mining giant Rio Tinto, was paid the previous year, when he was the top earner, according to figures published by Accountancy magazine, the journal of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.