精读金融时报：瑞士公投支持限制高管薪资

European executive pay has come under attack for the second time in less than a week after Swiss voters overwhelmingly backed curbs on corporate wages that snatch the power away from company boards.

The move comes on the heels of European-wide steps last Thursday to address top management pay, which has been a lightning rod for public anger across the world since the financial crisis.

EU proposals to cap bankers’ bonuses at twice their salary have stunned the City of London, with senior bankers warning that the cap will drive top staff to Asia or New York and eventually prompt a shift in operations from London. “This will have consequences,” said one high-ranking executive at a leading investment bank in London.

The referendum in Switzerland has introduced an even broader set of curbs after 68 per cent of voters approved rules that include giving shareholders a binding say on executive pay; banning golden hellos and goodbyes; requiring annual re-elections for directors; and threatening criminal sanctions for non-compliance.

Brigitta Moser-Harder, an activist shareholder who spearheaded the yes-campaign together with entrepreneur Thomas Minder, said that the result, one of the most emphatic yes-votes ever in a Swiss referendum, sent a clear signal to companies both within and beyond Switzerland’s borders.

“The EU is already capping bankers’ bonuses and now the Swiss people has spoken very clearly as well. The message to company boards and managers is: you have to rein in executive pay,” she said.

Britain plans to mount a last-ditch attempt to revise the EU bonus cap at a meeting of finance ministers on Tuesday with chancellor George Osborne trying to gather opposition to the proposal. But while Mr Osborne is fighting to change some details, the prospects of a big reversal are slim. An overwhelming majority of EU member states is willing to sign up to the political deal reached with the European parliament, which is part of legislation to enact a sweeping overhaul of bank capital rules.