Sunday 31 May 2015

Fidelity "steers away from" own previous views?

Just a quick update, as I noted in a previous post Fidelity says it has "deliberately steered away from" addressing the question of scale/size/amount (or as they say "quantum") of executive pay.

This hasn't always been their view. It turns out that Fidelity told the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards that in the banking sector "both the quantum and structure of incentive awards were wholly disproportionate to the economic benefit being generated." (see Para A4 here)

Fidelity also told the PCBS that its proposals for exec pay reform would help tackle the scale of pay, and that "reducing the overall size of awards" was something that "needs attention".

"In the case of Career Shares or ex-ante performance vesting, once shares are awarded they really do belong to the recipient and hence it should be possible to achieve the same motivational effect with a lower quantum of shares. This could make a contribution to reining in the overall size of awards which is another area which needs attention." (Para C4).

So they used to think the scale of pay mattered, at least for banks, but apparently no longer do.

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