Barclays and RBS paid 53 staff more than £ One million pa despite being involved with Libor fixing.
A fresh row over City pay erupted on Friday when two of Britain's biggest banks, Barclays and bailed out Royal Bank of Scotland, revealed that 523 of their staff took home more than £1m in 2012.
RBS, which is 83% owned by the taxpayer, was accused of having the "best paid public sector workers by a mile" after admitting for the first time that 95 bankers were handed £1m last year even though the bank was hit by a £390m fine for rigging Libor and suffered a prolonged computer breakdown.
Barclays, fined £290m for manipulating the benchmark interest rate, paid 428 staff more than £1m. The pay deals at Barclays eclipsed those at HSBC, Britain's biggest bank, which earlier this week said 204 of its employees received £1m or more.
The scale of the pay five years on from the banking crisis prompted TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said to say it justified the EU cap on bonuses. "It is as if the financial crisis never happened," she said, describing the pay as "obscene".
