UBS has “witnessed a Waterloo”

[abelenkpe]

UBS has “witnessed a Waterloo”

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/UBS_has_witnessed_a_Waterloo.html?cid=8677502&rss=true

Swiss newspapers on Thursday morning were full of praise for UBS shareholders who voted to hold 2007 executives partially responsible for the bank’s near collapse.

Commentators say the decision not to exonerate former CEO Marcel Ospel and other top managers of allowing the bank to suffer record losses and reputational damage is nothing short of historic.

(snip)

The decision means former managers are now exposed to potential lawsuits.

“This is something that no one for a long time thought possible,” said Blick.

“By standing up to the board, the owners of UBS have written economic history.”

Shareholder democracy

The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper said the vote serves as a “slap” to top executives and represents a turning point that the bank cannot deny.


(more at link)

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[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Great!!!!

Now, how can we get the shareholders of banks and companies over here to do the same?

[Warpy]

2. I started noticing those votes to absolve executives

of responsibility for screwing up a company started to appear in 2007. You can guess how I voted.

This year, a lot of proxies have a lot of things marked "VOTE AGAINST" that are shareholder initiatives like full disclosure of executive pay packages, ownership threshold to call meetings, and the like. You can imagine I've ignored the sage advice of the board of directors on those, too.

It's a sign shareholders who can manage to travel to those things are making a big stink about being robbed every year by boards and executives who are looting the companies and not paying profits out to shareholders.

They've had enough.

[lxlxlxl]

3. Did you know German workers / labor get to vote for half of their corporate boards?

fuck ubs by the way...hope the shareholders of american companies get their shit together soon...