The Downside of Upsizing Bank Executive Salaries

TORONTO, March 31, 2014 /CNW/ - Bill Davis is one Bank of Montreal shareholder who's not happy to see his dividends being used to pay exorbitant salaries to top bank executives. In fact, he's hoping other shareholders will agree with him when he addresses the bank's annual general meeting in Toronto on April 1.

"Our global business model is broken. It has gradually fostered excessive levels of compensation for senior executives, placing them in a small elite who are drawing resources from our shareholders' return and from other stakeholders," says Davis.

Davis is a familiar face at these gatherings of shareholders. He regularly attends annual general meetings of all five major Canadian banks. In this instance he will be exercising his own proxy as well as representing The United Church of Canada. The United Church has asked Davis to add its voice to the effort to apply shareholder influence toward a more responsible program for executive compensation because it shares Davis's concern about income inequality.

Davis's pitch every time he speaks at one of these annual meetings is for banks to consider incorporating vertical benchmarking—comparing executives' salaries to the society where their friends and neighbours live and work, to their staff, and to executives in other occupations—when they calculate executive compensation.

Full text news release: http://www.united-church.ca/communications/news/releases/140331

SOURCE: United Church of Canada

Mary-Frances Denis, The United Church of Canada, 416-231-7680 ext. 2016, 416-400-7273 (cell), [email protected]