Swiss banks face fresh call for shareholder 'say on pay'
Ethos, the Swiss corporate governance campaigner and activist investor that demanded an independent audit of last year’s US sub-prime losses at UBS, has renewed its call for a shareholder say on executive remuneration at the Swiss bank and rival Credit Suisse by filing resolutions for next year’s annual meetings.
Ethos said in a statement today it has teamed up with eight Swiss pension funds to file a shareholder resolution for the 2009 annual meetings of several of Switzerland’s largest companies. These include UBS and Credit Suisse, as well as engineering group ABB, drug maker Novartis and food group Nestlé.
The resolution seeks the right for shareholders to be able to cast an advisory vote on corporate remuneration reports.
Ethos said: “Among the main stock markets, Switzerland is the only country in which the legislation does not provide shareholders with any right to express their opinion on executive remuneration. For this reason, action is now needed by shareholders.”
Ethos also today published a survey of last year’s remuneration at major Swiss-listed companies, which it said confirmed “the inappropriateness and excessiveness of certain pay packages in light of company performance”.
The governance group added: “In most cases, variable pay is not determined by adequate performance criteria and recent events have demonstrated that a bad remuneration structure can have very negative consequences on the company’s strategy.”
--write to vahuja@efinancialnews.com
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