Joy Questions Executive Pay Levels

Date: 26 November 2003

The suburban branch manager running for a position on the ANZ Board today said she would bring greater scrutiny to the payment of executive salaries if elected to the Board.

Joy Buckland said that today's revelations that the executives of Australia's four major banks will take home salaries, shares and options worth $25 million in 2003-04 was further evidence that executive pay was out of control.

"I am a manager of a suburban branch where just a fraction of this money would make the world of difference to both staff and customers," Mr Buckland said.

"Every day my staff are being pushed to do more with less, while my customers are waiting longer and being asked to pay more for basic banking services.

"We know what the people who run our major banks won't tell you, that big pay packages based on short-term profits, branch closures and staff cuts do not build sustainable long-term businesses."

Ms Buckland said research conducted by the University of Sydney earlier this year showed that there was no link between high executive salaries and company performance. Indeed, the more an executive is paid, the worse the company tends to perform.

"If elected to the ANZ Board, I would propose a new formula for executive pay that was based not just on share price, but also on genuine benchmarks of customer, staff and community satisfaction levels," Ms Buckland said.

"I would argue that executives should have the same sorts of performance criteria that they apply to their staff - that is their ability to deliver services that customers want, rather than purely focussing on short-term returns for the market.

"Until banks realise they have a responsibility to the community, they will continue to be held in low public regard, which means they must spend more on advertising and marketing to soften their image. It would be far more cost-effective to invest in staff and branches and win the good will of the public through providing a well-resourced branch network."

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