Majority of RBS shareholders vote against pay

Over 90% of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shareholders have voted against the remuneration policy proposed by the bank’s board at its AGM last Friday in Edinburgh.

The vote comes as a huge blow to the already struggling bank, which has been the subject of bad press recently.

As a result of the vote, the bank’s chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, has pledged that the bank will take action to review how pay and bonuses are managed in the future.

The bank is under attack for its past mistakes and last week, Sir Philip called for an “end to the public flogging,” referring, in particular, to the £700,000 a year pension awarded to Sir Fred Goodwin, RBS’s disgraced former chief executive.

Sir Fred, along with ex-chairman of RBS, Sir Tom McKillop, have been blamed for the near collapse of the bank.

Returning to the AGM, one shareholder referred to Sir Fred as a “benefits scrounger”, while another said the entire previous board should be jailed.

Meanwhile, according to the BBC, Sir Fred has rejected renewed requests from Sir Philip to voluntarily reduce his pension.

At the end of February the bank, which is 68% owned by the taxpayer, reported a full 2008 year loss of £24.1 billion - the largest annual loss in UK corporate history.

Finally, the bank has announced it will make further redundancies worldwide. The fresh job losses are in addition to the 2,700 job losses already announced.

Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums

Story link: Majority of RBS shareholders vote against pay