Will Singapore shareholders get their say on pay?

Singapore

SINGAPORE investors could soon have a greater say on how much the executives of listed companies here get paid; but whether this is necessarily a good thing remains to be seen.

Global advisory firm Willis Towers Watson believes that Say-On-Pay is an inevitable development for the Singapore market - one driven not just by global trends but also by domestic needs.

Say-On-Pay is commonly defined as the ability of shareholders of a company to vote on how and how much executives of the company get compensated. In essence, it divests the power to decide executive remuneration away from the companies and into the hands of investors.

It ranges from binding votes, adopted by jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, to non-binding, or advisory, votes, seen in the United States. Binding votes allow shareholders a legally binding vote on executive remuneration resolutions, including the company's remuneration framework and targets for the coming year. Advisory votes have shareholders voting on remuneration-related resolutions, merely to express their level of satisfaction with s…