Corporate pay police

Keith Skeoch, chief executive of Standard Life Investments, said he has "serious reservations" about the way in which Eric Daniels's pay package at Lloyds Banking Group is structured. Maybe Daniels feels the same way about Skeoch's arrangements. After all, Standard Life itself does – it is changing them. Skeoch picked up a £1.65m bonus last year, almost all of which was paid in cash. Such a cash-heavy weighting won't be possible in future: Standard Life today announced a switch to a share-based long-term incentive scheme and introduced the principle of claw-back. Skeoch's grumble about Daniels's long-term incentives centred on the use of bald share price targets. Standard Life is addressing a different problem. Even so, when supposed policemen of corporate pay are still catching up with best practice, you can understand why the debate about boardroom rewards moves at glacial pace.