I have a small number of Lloyds shares, from back when the Halifax demutualised. I’ve had the shareholder AGM voting form lying around for a while. Being a grumpy sort I’m tempted to vote against the Directors’ remuneration report on the assumption that they’ll be awarding themselves big fat pay rises and bonuses and also against granting authority to make political donations.

Attempting to read the Directors’ remuneration report to see if my cynical assumptions are reasonable just makes my eyes cross. Has anyone here actually got an informed view about how I could vote?

For those of you who are unusually interested in such things, the Lloyds annual report is here.

A rule of thumb I have always employed when voting on AGM motions is:

Always vote for the non-approved candidates on the ballot over the incumbents. Especially if the incumbent has been there a while. (Never vote for carpet-baggers though).

Employees are not deserving of double digit/inflation busting pay rises. You want those run your own company not a public one.

Sometimes it is wise to vote against re-employing the auditor.

I was a Lloyds shareholder for a while trying to play for a long term recovery post the crises, tbh it was a very well run bank until they where duped into buying Halifax which crucified them as Halifax was worth less than zero. IMO OP Brown did you a massive favour as you have shares worth something when really you should have lost everything. I sold out as it was clear imo the bank was going nowhere, I put the money into the US and have done much better as a result.

So .. this is possibly going to come accross as obnoxious but …

Lloyds is a pretty crap payer, I can’t see why talented execs would work there unless it was well paid as its now a dead end. Vote against by all means to ensure it remains a middle of the road bank.

Probably worth trying to develop a real understanding of why the bonus is in place and what is gained as a result. If you get in touch directly with investor relations they will probably help explain / break down so you don’t have to read the whole report: http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/investors/investorcontacts/

Beyond Directors and the CEO there are 10k+ staff in all areas, with some very low salaries being paid (e.g. facilities / reception / low end grunt paperwork – this is not an investment bank). What is common is that all staff are stack ranked, being incentivised to work for their bonus. Many (far from all) are working way beyond their paid hours and go over and above to secure their bonus. Those that don’t hit their targets, don’t get any kind of bonus that would make readers here upset. The same rules also apply to the CEO and Directors.

It’s important to compare remuneration at all levels with other banks and FTSE 100 co’s. I believe the CEO has recently had his remuneration slashed!

I’m a shareholder too 🙂

As a follow up I would suggest you just sell, invest in something else. Roll the dice on Apple / Google / Facebook … financial services like banking have been clobbered by regulatory chnanges post 2007/8 and aren’t “coming back”

All in my personal opinion of course.

Being a grumpy sort I’m tempted to vote against the Directors’ remuneration report on the assumption that they’ll be awarding themselves big fat pay rises and bonuses

Just lol.

Or you could read it? Labour supporter perchance?