Fresh from being pilloried by analysts for failing to top French rival BNP Paribas' E9 billion ($10.8 billion) offer for Italian bank BNL, Francisco González, chairman and CEO of Spain's BBVA, is facing further criticism amid revelations of the rich severance package he would get if forced out.

Last month, in accordance with a new voluntary corporate governance code, BBVA for the first time published details of its top managers' compensation. The report revealed a clause in the contracts of BBVA's three seniormost executives -- González, COO José Ignacio Goirigolzarri and board secretary José Antonio Maldonado -- that guarantees each five times his annual earnings, plus full pension benefits, if he is forced to quit for reasons other than retirement, ill health or gross incompetence.

Based on last year's salaries and bonuses and the size of their accumulated pension savings, González is eligible for a E60 million golden handshake if he's forced to leave BBVA. Goirigolzarri would receive E50 million and Maldonado E12 million. Most modern corporate governance codes recommend that senior executives receive no more than a year's compensation if they are dismissed.

"The BBVA packages are an outrage and bear no relation to compensation in the rest of Europe," says Jacinto Soler-Padro, chairman of Soler-Padro Morrow, a Barcelona-based shareholder rights consulting firm. "It looks like González and the two other executives are just looking for a big payoff if they have to leave their jobs in the wake of a merger."

BBVA refuses to make an official comment on the pay packages, but insiders point out that senior executives have turned the company into Europe's most profitable bank, boosting return on equity to 37 percent in 2005 from only 21.1 percent when González took over in 2000. "I think our chairman is undercompensated, considering the value he's created," says one. The supportive colleague didn't say whether E60 million would be enough to even the score.