Tough cookies

13 March 2018 By Christopher Thompson Follow @CGAThompson

The Dutch lender has withdrawn a 50 percent salary hike for its CEO following a public outcry. Political opprobrium stems from past state support for banks. The inevitable consequence is that bosses become glorified civil servants. Directors and shareholders take a back seat.

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ING Group on March 13 said it had withdrawn a proposal to increase the pay of Chief Executive Ralph Hamers by 50 percent.

The proposed award by the Dutch bank, to be made in the form of shares which could not be sold for at least five years, sparked political outrage in the Netherlands.

Political parties representing 99 percent of the seats in parliament supported a motion condemning the pay rise, according to a Reuters report on March 8.

The 51-year-old boss, who has led ING since October 2013, would have received the extra pay in the form of ING shares worth 50 percent of his base salary of 1.75 million euros. He received a total of almost 2 million euros in 2017.

Dutch politicians have already limited pay for bank executives since the financial crisis by imposing a cap on performance-related bonuses to a maximum of 20 percent of base salaries.

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