Wells Fargo’s shareholders get say on pay again

New story from IR magazine's Brad Allen:

Bank joins ranks of say-on-pay volunteers

Wells Fargo & Company, for the second year in a row, is giving shareholders a non-binding advisory vote on executive compensation at its annual meeting. The company announced the move this morning, after the board of directors adopted the measure.

As Congress is writing financial reform legislation, a say-on-pay provision is likely to be included. A rewritten Senate bill is expected as soon as tomorrow, Thursday.

Brad Wilks, managing director at Sard Verbinnen and chairman of NIRI, says the move by Wells Fargo is ‘prudent and well advised’ and ‘part of a growing trend – something that will eventually become standard practice for US public companies.’

Describing it as ‘a bow to the inevitable – especially for financial services companies that have been the beneficiary of significant taxpayer-funded bailouts,’ Wilks predicts that banks in particular ‘will continue to be under close scrutiny [on compensation] for many years to come”

Microsoft Corp, Apple and Verizon are among the large public companies that have voluntarily adopted say on pay.