Shareholders Revolts Against Executive Compensation is Getting More Common

This time it's Barklays, and once again it failed:

Shareholders have demonstrated their mounting anger over runaway boardroom pay, delivering a huge protest against Barclays pay policies – including the £17m package for chief executive Bob Diamond.

Nearly a third of shareholders failed to back the remuneration report at a sometimes hostile annual meeting in the Royal Festival Hall, London, where one shareholder warned of the damage to the bank's reputation because of its pay deals.

Shareholders also handed a severe rebuke to Alison Carnwath, the non-executive director who sanctioned the pay deals. More than one in five investors failed to support the re-election of Carnwath, a veteran of many boardroom battles, to the board – a huge protest given that directors usually expect near-unanimous support for their positions.

You used to hear about this once a decade.

We've had 3 in the past 6 weeks.

Even if they lose, it's a step in the right direction.