On the go: The Work and Pensions Committee has demanded answers from Standard Chartered over its pension payouts to executives, escalating the debate over bumper retirement awards at the top of corporate structures.
The bank’s existing executive directors will receive pension contributions worth 40 per cent of their cash salary – making CEO Bill Winters’ pension worth £474,000 a year – compared with contributions worth 10 per cent for other employees, under a new policy.
After 36 per cent of shareholders rejected the proposals at Standard Chartered’s annual meeting in May, Mr Winters came under fire for labelling critics of his pay package “immature and unhelpful”.
Frank Field, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, challenged Christine Hodgson, chair of the bank’s remuneration committee, on whether she shared Mr Winters’ opinion.
Mr Field asked: “Is that a view shared by you and your colleagues on the remuneration committee?”
Will you be asking your committee to revisit the executive pay policy next year, in light of the negative reception the 2019 policy has received?
Frank Field MP, Work and Pensions Committee
Mr Field also questioned whether, during the new policy’s consultation period, there were a balance of views that reflected the opposition during the AGM vote. He wrote: “If so, why did your committee put forward a proposal so unappealing to shareholders and if not why did your consultation fail to identify shareholder concerns?”
Mr Winters – whose total package was almost £6m last year, making him the UK’s second-highest-paid banking CEO – said in an interview with the Financial Times last week: “Picking on individual pension arrangements... and suggesting that there is some big issue there is immature and unhelpful.”
He tried to clarify the remark in a statement on Friday, saying he had incorrectly communicated his point.
Mr Winters wrote: “I urged a conversation about the pressing questions of inequality, fairness of executive compensation and the role of corporations. The focus on a single component of pay, which in the case of Standard Chartered had no effect on total compensation, has crowded out this important debate.”
In his letter to Ms Hodgson, Mr Field added: “Will you be asking your committee to revisit the executive pay policy next year, in light of the negative reception the 2019 policy has received?”
Standard Chartered declined to comment.
