Standard Chartered: UK parliamentary committee questions StanChart's compensation policy

The chairman of the UK Parliament's Labor and Retirement Committee has written to the chairman of the Standard Chartered Plc compensation committee to question the executive compensation levels of the bank after more than a third of shareholders voted against remuneration policy for its directors.

In the letter written Thursday and made public on Monday, Committee Chair Frank Field asked why the Compensation Committee had proposed that current directors receive 40% of base salary (20% of total salary) as a pension contribution, while new executive directors are limited to 10% of total salary.

The letter also asked if the Compensation Committee supported the Investment Association's directive that the pension contribution rates of the executive directors should be aligned with their staff, and asked if the Compensation Committee was considering revising the compensation policy. leaders next year.

Some 36% of StanChart shareholders voted against the 2019 bank remuneration report at the annual shareholders meeting held in London, which included increasing Director General Bill Winters retired.

Investors were also frustrated that the bank failed to cap pension contributions as a percentage of base salary, but based on a larger total salary base.

Field's letter summed up by asking if the Compensation Committee shared Winters' views, as reported in the Financial Times, where the managing director called the investors "reckless" for voting against his compensation package. .

Winters and chairman of the Compensation Committee, Christine Hodgson, previously stated that they thought the retirement benefits paid to executives were in line with British corporate governance codes, even though the definition of base salary given by the bank includes fixed compensation paid in shares as well as a cash salary.