Walker: Big earners not named (or shamed) but counted

The Wall Street journal summed up the recommendations succinctly. ““The remuneration committee should be responsible for setting the overarching principles and parameters of remuneration policy on a firm wide basis, and should have oversight on remuneration policy in respect to all "high end" employees, which is defined as employees who earn more than the median income of the executive board.

A new recommendation is that banks should disclose in banks the number of high end employees whose total expected remuneration ranges from £1m-£2.5m; £2.5m-£5m and £5m bands thereafter.”

Mathew Rutter, partner at national commercial law firm Beachcroft LLP said: "Publishing details of the high-end levels of remuneration won't in itself shed much light on whether a bank is being well run.  All it can do is prompt major shareholders to ask further questions, but those are questions they should probably be asking anyway."

Charles Cotton, Policy Adviser at the CIPD, said the CIPD is concerned that the focus on reward practices should not be allowed to hide the need for a far wider focus on the other risks that exist around how people are managed.

He said: "Risk committees need to look beyond just pay and bonuses, to review whether company culture, performance management and appraisal, talent management, leadership and organisational development are also sources of potential organisational hazard.”