Second ANZ proxy advisor recommends vote against pay report

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By Scott Murdoch and Christine Chen

SYDNEY, Dec 4 (Reuters) – Australian lender ANZ Group’s influential proxy advisor Institutional Shareholder Services on Thursday recommended investors vote against the bank’s executive pay report – making it the second advisor group to do so this week.

CGI Glass Lewis on Monday said shareholders should also vote against the report at ANZ’s annual meeting on December 18.

ANZ declined to comment on the ISS report.

ANZ this year stripped former Chief Executive Shayne Elliott of A$13.5 million ($8.9 million) worth of bonuses that were due to be paid as part of his compensation package.

Other former executives also endured pay and bonus eliminations in sweeping cuts worth about $A32 million, according to ANZ’s annual report.

An ISS report, published on Thursday, said while some remuneration had been stripped away from Elliott and the other executives, the cuts could have been tougher in light of ANZ’s string of recent scandals.

It said Elliott still retained about A$7.9 million worth of long-term incentive pay after the cuts had been made.

Proxy advisors are considered influential in Australia as most major institutional investors follow their recommendations at company meetings.

A vote against ANZ’s remuneration report would be the second in two years, meaning investors could vote for the re-election of the company’s directors. ISS and CGI Glass Lewis did not recommend shareholders support a move to spill the board.

ANZ in September agreed to pay A$240 million, the Australian corporate regulator’s largest-ever penalties against a single entity, over systemic failures ranging from acting “unconscionably” in a government bond deal to charging dead customers.

($1 = 1.5133 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Michael Perry)