Australia’s banks brace for first strike
(9 December 2018 – Australia) Westpac is expecting Wednesday’s annual general meeting to deliver a historic first strike against its remuneration report as investors make their wrath felt.
Institutional investors are deeply concerned at the banking sector’s performance this year. Westpac’s share price is down 12.5 percent over the year. The sector is trading at 11.5 times forward earnings, a one third discount to the rest of the market ex-resources.
NAB and ANZ also face big protest votes at their annual meetings this week.
Targeting senior banker pay this AGM season comes against the backdrop of the royal commission’s consideration of whether remuneration incentives across all levels of banking need to change to amend the greed which the interim report said drove the misconduct it uncovered.
CBA, which received its first strike in 2016, avoided one this year with investors applauding CEO Matt Comyn’s short-term incentive being reduced to zero.
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