Executives of State-owned banks and insurers have been ordered to cut their salaries to promote income fairness amid an economic slump that has put pressure on profits and wiped out millions of jobs.

The directive follows rising public grumbling about huge pay packages for top executives at State-owned financial companies.

Total executive pay for 2008 at financial institutions - which many are still computing - must not surpass 90 percent of the 2007 levels, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced yesterday.