French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said she would push to curb compensation to executives of poorly performing companies. Lagarde made the pledge a day after she said she planned to also push for registration of credit ratings agencies doing business in Europe.
Lagarde told a radio interviewer the Financial Times reports that Lagarde in a radio interview yesterday called executive pay rates “perfectly scandalous” and urged companies to adopt compensation programs for top executives that reflect performance, suggesting further regulation could be in the offing if they failed to do so.
The Dutch government is preparing to impose anadditional tax on executive bonuses and a levy on companies that payout vast severance packages.
Jean-Claude Juncker,the Luxembourg prime minister, called excessive corporate pay a “socialscourge” and said EU ministers would consider higher taxes on “goldengoodbyes”.
“This type of increase in companies which are sometimes not doing well is perfectly scandalous,” Lagarde told French radio.
Lagarde was reacting to a recent survey by L’Expansionmagazine that found the total pay of chief executives ofFrance’s leading companies, including salaries, share optionsand dividends, increased by 58 percent in 2007.