After a powerful investor advisory group warned the high street lender had failed to explain a "significant" 20% wage increase for top leaders, Metro Bank is at risk of a shareholder revolt over CEO pay.
Glass Lewis – which helps shareholders including large pension funds and asset managers decide how to vote at annual general meetings – urged investors to vote against the bank’s remuneration report amid concerns over rising payouts for the chief executive, Daniel Frumkin, and the newly joined chief financial officer, James Hopkinson.
“Absent a sufficiently compelling rationale, we cannot recommend that shareholders support this proposal at this time,” Glass Lewis said.
It follows Metro Bank's promise to increase Frumkin's base compensation by 20%, claiming that his remuneration was "increasingly out of line with others in the market" and that he was instrumental in turning around the bank's fortunes after an accounting crisis rocked it in 2019.
Although Frumkin waived the raise by a year, it will now become effective in January 2024 and raise his base salary from £769,600 to £925,000. For 2022, Frumkin received a salary of £1.3 million, plus bonuses.