http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2141557/Resignation-Andrew-Moss-cheers-Shareholder-Spring-But-did-long-rise-up.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
"What was particularly interesting was the response of the markets: yesterday, the company’s shares rose."
"Thankfully, the outside directors of large enterprises such as Aviva have recognised the issue of executive pay now threatens the reputation, standing and integrity of the companies concerned.
No longer can chief executives feel they can demand vast remuneration — often regardless of their company’s performance — with impunity.
This dramatic change of sentiment in Britain’s boardrooms will send shivers down the spines of those bosses, such as Bob Diamond of Barclays, who have already suffered the humiliation of shareholders turning against their pay in great numbers.
And the message is that this is no short-term rebellion: it appears to be a genuine shift of opinion about just how much the boss of a leading company should earn. (Next in line is Sam Laidlaw, the boss of British Gas owner Centrica, who must fear a huge challenge to his authority and leadership when he has to face investors at this week’s annual general meeting.)
What is perhaps most astounding about the Shareholder Spring is that it has taken so long to happen.
Since the collapse of the banking system in 2007-2008, most of the public venom has been aimed at the likes of failed Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin and his pension payoff (£342,000 a year for life), and the bonuses paid to his successors at RBS and the other banks.
But he has proved to be a distraction from the scandalous increases enjoyed by many other chief executives.
In the last year for which figures are available, 2010/11, the pay, benefits and share options for the bosses of the FTSE 100’s top companies climbed by more than 40 per cent."
"While many will feel that such aggressive action cannot come a moment too soon, I would sound a note of caution that while it is claiming some famous heads, it is not necessarily attacking the source of the problem.
That lies within the corporate boards themselves — and with the back-scratching remuneration committees that set the levels of executive pay."
"With the assistance of overpaid remuneration consultants, drawn from Big Four accounting firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, pay committees are engaged in a financial ‘arms race’ in which they aim to set the pay of their bosses above those of similar companies, believing this somehow improves their status.
This unholy apparatus — with its nexus of cross-directorships — must be dismantled if any sense of propriety is to be restored."
| 