It seems the UK financial and corporate establishment is agreed. The London stock market is in a funk, with too many companies hopping off to re-list in New York. Therefore the UK executive class must be given US-style pay packages to keep ‘em loyal.
That’s a slight exaggeration since, so far, it’s only a handful of companies – the likes of AstraZeneca, HSBC, LSEG (the owner of the London Stock Exchange) and the medical devices group Smith & Nephew – that have revealed, or signalled, that they want to boost executive rewards to keep up with US rivals. And none of them have threatened to quit London. All the same, it’s remarkable that an intense debate about the woes of the London stock market has morphed into a refrain about executive pay in the UK.
