The two men in charge of the City watchdog which oversaw the collapse and nationalisation of Northern Rock received inflation-busting pay rises last year.

Hector Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, even received a £114,000 bonus taking his total package up from £482,829 to £661,948. That was an increase of 37 per cent although part of that reflects the fact that he was promoted to the top role half way through last year.

FSA chairman Sir Callum McCarthy, who drew heavy criticism from MPs for the watchdog's failure to spot the problems at Northern Rock in time, saw his pay rise by 11 per cent to £480,553. He got no bonus.

The man widely seen as the FSA fall guy for the Northern Rock fiasco, Clive Briault, former managing director of the watchdog's retail unit, left with a six figure pay-off.

He got a total of £883,711 last year including a £356,452 contractual pay-off and £202,500 for "loss of office".

Adair Turner will take over from Sir Callum as chairman in September with the FSA's morale at rock bottom. In the shake-out of financial regulation announced by Chancellor Alistair Darling, it is seen to have lost a power struggle with the Bank of England.

Today Mr Sants said he regretted "the standard of supervision of Northern Rock in the period leading up to the market instability late last summer".

He added: "I am determined the FSA will not be defined by the Northern Rock incident, but by our response to it."

Northern Rock was nationalised in February with guarantees from the taxpayer amounting to £100 million after the first run on a high street bank in this country for more than century.

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