The Gold Coast Bulletin

AMP cuts boss bonuses

Action aims to stop a second shareholde­r revolt

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AMP has scrapped short-term cash bonuses and cut directors’ fees in an effort to avoid a second shareholde­r strike on remunerati­on and possible board spill at May’s annual general meeting.

Chairman David Murray (pictured) said the financial services provider understood last year’s revolt – when almost two-thirds of shareholde­rs voted against the remunerati­on report – was a protest against how pay was awarded and the company’s wellpublic­ised misdeeds.

AMP, which suffered 97 per cent drop in full-year profit as it set aside millions for customer remediatio­n, also said former chief executive Craig Meller and former advice and banking executive Rob Caprioli would forfeit $10.8 million in unvested incentives.

“This reflects their overall accountabi­lity for the ‘fee for no service’ issues that AMP had previously disclosed to ASIC and which were addressed during the financial advice hearing block of the royal commission,” AMP said in its annual report, released yesterday.

The only executive to get a short-term cash incentive was AMP Capital chief executive Adam Tindall, whose total $3.31 million package made him AMP’s best paid executive.

Chief executive Francesco De Ferrari, who started work in December, was paid a total of $1.28 million.

AMP said it had to take account of Mr De Ferrari’s remunerati­on package at Credit Suisse, where he was head of Asia Pacific private banking, in order to hire a CEO necessary calibre.

“Given the circumstan­ces of the royal commission, at the time it was unlikely we could appoint an executive from within Australia,” AMP said.

AMP was slammed at the royal commission for charging fees for no service and misleading regulators about it.

The revelation­s led to the exits of Mr Meller and chair Catherine Brenner, and the retirement of former advice boss of the Jack Regan. AMP in May cut non-executive directors’ fees by 25 per cent with immediate effect, and reduced them again from January 1 this year.

It cut fees to non-executive directors for serving on the AMP Capital board from $78,900 to $56,300, and for membership of its audit and risk committees from $16,900 to $10,000.

The chairman’s fee will fall from $850,000 to about $660,000 in 2020, with the final amount to be decided in the second half of the current financial year.

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