Yet we need to be careful what we wish for. It is shocking to see executives walking away with fat rewards when they have presided over loss, but we must not give in to outrage and mob rule. We still need processes that reward success and attract entrepreneurial talent.
The first task is to separate two problems that have become conflated. There is a big difference between dealing with the bonus culture of investment banks and with the more general issues around remuneration of directors in publicly listed companies. They require different solutions.
Some say shareholders bear a responsibility for condoning behaviour that led to the financial crisis. Charlie McCreevy, EU internal market commissioner, has called them “shrinking violets”, unwilling and unable to tackle the problem. Yet, while they can do much to address directors' remuneration if they are empowered and willing to put in the effort, shareholders cannot supervise pay across whole banks.