Banking giant HSBC was today criticised by disgruntled shareholders after becoming the latest company to be dragged into the row over "fat cat" boardroom pay.
Europe's biggest bank received a lukewarm reception at its annual meeting in London from campaigners anxious to block the re-election of director Mr William F Aldinger III, who became a board member when HSBC took over US consumer finance house Household International.
Shareholders were concerned that if Mr Aldinger were to leave the bank, he would receive a pay-off estimated to be worth about £20 million sterling.
The package could include his targeted annual bonus of $4 million (£2.4 million), a year's salary of a million dollars (£600,000) plus the guaranteed bonus for the rest of his contract, which could be up to $10 million (£6 million), as well as other perks.
Proxy votes received before today's meeting at the Barbican Centre showed about 20 per cent of shareholders rejected Mr Aldinger's re-election.
The revolt was less significant than campaigners and trade unions had hoped. Proxy votes backing the re-election totalled 3.8 billion, with just over a billion votes either going against the resolution or abstaining.
The move follows last week's humiliating defeat of the GlaxoSmithKline board by shareholders over the issue of executive pay, when a controversial "golden parachute" deal for chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier was rejected in one of the biggest shareholder revolts in British corporate history.
PA
