Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive officer of BlackRock, was paid a total of $34m (€25m) last year following his company's successful acquisition of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, as it emerged the US-based asset manager was suing UK rival Schroders for allegedly poaching a team in Germany.

Fink recieved an annual bonus of $10.2m and stock and option awards of $5m on top of a base salary of $500,000, after BlackRock's merger with MLIM doubled the group's size to $1.15 trillion under management.