The top bankers at Big British financial institutions appear to be more responsive than their American counterparts to public outrage about large bonuses, especially for those banks that received government aid.
Our Newswires colleague Patricia Kowsmann inLondon reports Lloyds Banking Group Chief Executive Eric Daniels waived his 2009 bonus. He was entitled to 2.3 million British pounds despite the company planning to report a net loss for the year and being 41%-owned by the British government.
Stephen Hester, who heads Royal Bank of Scotland, 84% owned by the U.K. government, will turn down a 1.6 million bonus, Kowsmann reported.
Perhaps more surprising was the bonus turn down by Barclays CEO John Varley. That bank has thrived and taken no government assistance.
Might simply be a case – rare as it seems - of true long-term thinking in the executive suite. The Barclays restraint should serve the bank well with an angry public.
Significant bonuses at loss-making institutions are no doubt harder to understand.
Tags: Lloyd's, Lloyds Banking Group, Neal Lipschutz, Patricia Kowsmann, Royal bank of Scotland
Posted by Neal Lipschutz
on January 28, 2010
Banks,
Corporate Governance,
Executive Compensation /
Comments Off
The high-voltage issue of banker and other executive compensation is still seen by some as a matter for corporate, rather than government, reform.
Some voices at the World Economic Forum annual meeting here in Davos, Switzerland, have made that point. There’s also been some dissent to the notion that paying out bonuses in company stock that vests only after a number of years will reduce excessive risk-taking.
Executive compensation as the responsibility of a company’s board of directors is a “central tenet” of corporate organization, said Robert Greifeld, chief executive of NASDAQ OMX Group, said in a Wednesday interview at the outskirts of the Davos meeting.
Continue reading…
Tags: Corporate Governance, Davos, European Trade Union Confederation, Executive Compensation, John Monks, KPMG, Lloyd's, Lord Levene, Nasdaq, Neal Lipschutz, Risk Taking, Robert Greifeld, Timothy Flynn, World Economic Forum
Posted by Neal Lipschutz
on January 27, 2010
Regulation,
United Kingdom,
United States,
World Economic Forum /
Comments Off
Neal Lipschutz is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
A statue in the City of London depicting the authors of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley U.S. regulatory legislation?
Such a monument is worthy of consideration, joked Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s, at a World Economic Forum panel discussion here.
Continue reading…
Tags: Financial Regulatory Reform, Lloyd's, Neal Lipschutz, Rep. Barney Frank, Sarbanes-Oxley, Switzerland, United Kingdom, World Economic Forum
