LONDON: One of Europe’s largest independent shareholder advisers is backing the Bank of England’s call for restraints on bankers’ pay while the coronavirus roils the economy.
Tim Bush, head of corporate governance at Pensions & Investment Research Consultants, said banks shouldn’t pay any bonuses at all to their senior executives. That echoes the stance taken by the UK’s central bank, which had already forced major lenders to cease paying dividends and buying back their shares.
Shares of HSBC Holdings Plc, Barclays Plc and other lenders tumbled on Wednesday after they cancelled their outstanding dividends and buybacks and said there would be no payments in 2020. British authorities are taking a similar line to counterparts on the Continent, where the European Central Bank has already asked eurozone banks to stop dividend payments for six months.
...