Annika Falkengren, head of Swedish bank SEB, made more than twice as much as her counterparts at other Swedish banks last year.

Despite the financial crisis and hard condemnations against bonuses to top bankers, Annika Falkengren, chief executive officer of Sweden’s third largest bank SEB, got paid 20 million kronor (€2 million, $2.9 million) last year, daily Svenska Dagbladet wrote.

This makes her the best paid bank manager in Sweden. Her declared income last year was twice as high as for Jan Lidén, former head of Swedbank, and three times larger as her counterpart’s at Handelsbanken, Pär Boman.

The news came the same day as France and Germany said they will demand action not words from fellow EU nations in Brussels in their bid to crack down on banking's big-bonus culture, ahead of a G20 summit in the US.

"There is now a global public opinion. All over the world, people are sickened by the bonus system. We want to bring to an end the scandal of bonuses. We want it to stop", said French president Nicolas Sarkozy in Monday.

Due to the global financial crisis and swelling problems in the Baltics, the SEB stock share plunged 60 percent last year. To shore up its troubled balance sheets it launched a 15 billion kronor right issue previously this year. All turbulence forced Annika Falkengren to turn down her criticized bonus at 2 million kronor for 2008.

Still, this year the declared 4 million kronor from her bonus in 2007. In addition to that she exchanged options, given to her by the bank between 2001 and 2005, amounting to a value of 8 million kronor. Only 7 million kronor are from her base salary, SvD wrote.

Pär Boman at Handelsbanken made 7.7 million kronor last year while Swedbank’s former CEO Jan Lidén declared an income of 9.5 million and Nordea’s head Christan Clausen made 9.7 million kronor, accoring to tax-declarations and annual reports.

Last month SEB said it swung to a second-quarter net loss of 193 million (€17.5 million, $24.8 million) after having written off all of its remaining acquisition goodwill in Eastern Europe and the Baltics.