Governance adviser says Paul Thwaite could have been offered lower starting salary than predecessor Alison Rose NatWest has been criticised for paying its new boss a salary of £1.2m despite his “limited experience” as a chief executive, amid a wider shareholder backlash in the City of London over bumper corporate pay. As the government prepares to sell shares in the bank before the general election, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) warned that Paul Thwaite would be paid the same salary as the bank’s former chief executive, Alison Rose, despite lacking her experience as a lead executive ..read more

Details of Chris O’Shea’s ballooning package emerge in Centrica’s annual report after company reports bumper profits The boss of the British Gas owner, Centrica, has seen his earnings nearly double to £8.2m, despite having admitted that his smaller pay packet the previous year was “impossible to justify”. Chris O’Shea earned a basic salary of £903,000, which was topped up by cash and share bonuses worth an extra £7.3m ..read more

Experts question if ‘bigger is better’ and whether members should be consulted on the £2.9bn deal The Nationwide building society is facing growing calls to give its 16 million members a say on its proposed £2.9bn takeover of high street rival Virgin Money in what would be the biggest UK banking deal since the financial crisis. It is just under two weeks since the building society shocked the City when it said it had reached a preliminary agreement to pay Virgin Money shareholders 220p a share, a 38% premium on the lender’s share price at the time ..read more

Despite UK government outrage the ‘legal loopholes remain and operator has been let off the hook’, says joint statement Unions have called for proper legal protection for seafarers on the second anniversary of the P&O Ferries mass sackings scandal, warning that ministers have “done nothing” to stop other firms following suit. The cross-Channel ferry operator fired 786 British crew on 17 March 2022 in order to replace them with low-paid agency staff. Although the firm admitted to breaking the law, it has continued to operate without sanction while undercutting rival operators on labour cost ..read more

Confronted by the huge salaries on offer in the US, London boardrooms are lobbying to be allowed to make their own bosses even wealthier There was a sharp intake of breath last month when the pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca cemented chief executive Pascal Soriot’s position as the best-paid FTSE 100 boss with a £17m pay package, up from £15.3m a year earlier. The latest award brings to £137m the amount he has earned since joining in 2012. While it drew the anger of corporate governance experts, Soriot’s generous payout was just a fraction of the sums his counterparts at the biggest US compani ..read more

Breach could disrupt Shein’s reported plans to list in UK as firms are legally required to declare ‘person with significant control’ • Business live – latest updates The UK business of the fast-fashion company Shein has failed to disclose its ultimate ownership, a breach of company law that could disrupt the firm’s reported plans to consider listing in the UK. UK companies are legally required to declare their ultimate human beneficial owner – their “person with significant control” (PSC ..read more

Penalty for breaching competition law is four times higher than forecast as Brussels looks to send message to tech firms Apple has been fined €1.8bn (£1.5bn) by the EU after an investigation found it had limited competition from music streaming services such as Spotify. The fine is nearly four times higher than expected as the European Commission attempts to show it will act decisively on tech companies who abuse their dominant position in the market for online services ..read more

Exclusive: Witnesses to UK parliament’s inquiry share their stories from the world of finance When City executive Selena* logged on for a Teams call with five senior male colleagues in spring 2021, she was gobsmacked. She had spent weeks warning bosses that the London-based investment firm risked falling foul of European regulations. She had gathered data and presented supporting evidence, but was repeatedly brushed off. “Nobody wanted to listen,” she said ..read more

Lawsuit says chief executive Sam Altman’s deal with Microsoft has broken organisation’s mission Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, of betraying its foundational mission by putting the pursuit of profit ahead of the benefit of humanity. The world’s richest man, a founding board member of the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, claimed Altman had “set aflame” OpenAI’s founding agreement by signing an investment deal with Microsoft ..read more

Emma Walmsley’s deal, with a high share bonus payout, makes her one of top-paid CEOs in FTSE 100 The annual pay package of the boss of GlaxoSmithKline, Emma Walmsley, has jumped by 50% to £12.7m, mainly because of a higher share bonus payout reflecting the British drugmaker’s improved performance. Walmsley’s huge pay rise makes her one of the highest-paid executives in the FTSE 100 index of leading shares, a week after it emerged that her counterpart at Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot, received a £16.9m pay package last year and is in line for an even higher p ..read more