The average pay of top bankers in the US and Europe fell by nearly 60 per cent in 2009 amid a furor over bonuses, according to data compiled for the Financial Times. Across the banks surveyed, average chief executive pay dropped to $6m in 2009, down from nearly $14m in 2008, according to the analysis by Equilar, the pay research firm. Bankers’ bonuses triggered a political firestorm last year on both sides of the Atlantic as the institutions that emerged from the financial crisis began posting big profits in an apparent return to “business as usual.”