The
General Shareholders' Meeting of ING
|
The
atmosphere was heavy at the Annuel Shareholders'
Meeting of ING on May 9 at 2:30 p.m. in
Amsterdam.
Of
course, we were there, with 400 other
people.
The
Group is still living through difficult
times.
The
conditions imposed by the Dutch Government,
the conditions laid down by the European
Commission must be fulfilled. Paying back
the € 10billion set on the table by the
Dutch state.
Save
the wreckage, navigate at sight, put the
insurance branch on sale...
All
this has to be done.
Moreover,
we will have to find a vision again one
day, a long term strategy.
This
is a prerequisite to get trust back.
We
are still far from it. We must work on
it.
But
there is something else.
Against
all the odds, the ING Group remains one
of the last big Dutch companies where
the managers take cover by manipulating
the shareholders’ vote.
Commitments
had been made to put an end to this system.
But under the pretext of crisis, we make
pretence of forgetting them and we keep
the bad practices of the past.
How
does it work? At this Meeting, 43% of
shareholders voted or gave voting orders,
sometimes positive sometimes negative.
|
President Jan Hommen
|
Many
shareholders didn’t agree with the report on
remunerations and, in particular, the level
of remuneration of Jan Hommen, ING President.
After
a very long debate (over 2 hours), they voted
against it.
What
was this vote’s worth? What has been done with
it?
As
43% of shareholders had voted, the vote of the
remaining 57% was automatically exercised by
the “Stichting”, and it automatically voted
for.
And
there you have it.
In
a company where managers don’t care about the
shareholders control it always ends up in the
same way: Arrogance, contempt… and sooner or
later the crash against the wall.
At
ING as elsewhere we must put an end to this
system.
If
not, no trust is possible.
And
without trust, no employee share ownership.
This
is what we must work on.
Finally,
the General Meeting discussed about the composition
of the Supervisory Board, asking for rebalancing.
You
have too few non-Dutch in the Board (let's congratulate
Luc Vandewalle for his appointment during this
meeting).
And
too few women: No women among the new appointments,
this is in contradiction with ING's intents,
the Meeting said.
With best regards
