Banking group CYBG — owner of Yorkshire Bank, Clydesdale Bank, Virgin Money and digital brand B — promised shareholders on Friday it would be clearer in future about how it determines pay and awards for top executives.

The move, in a stock exchange statement, comes after more than a third of CYBG shareholders voted against the directors’ remuneration report of the group at its annual general meeting in January.

“Since the AGM members of the board and the executive management team have engaged in consultation with the company’s largest shareholders in the UK and in Australia (between them representing c.60% of CYBG voting rights) on several matters, including our approach to remuneration …” said CYBG.

“Reflecting upon the discussions (and on the proxy agency report recommendations, that we believe many of our shareholders relied upon) the board has concluded that, while we have majority support for our approach and our disclosure levels were generally good, some shareholders would like to see greater transparency.  

“This will therefore be a focus for us moving forward and in particular we will seek to be clearer over our processes such as those for determining awards for executive directors, calculating annual awards and where judgement and discretion is applied by the remuneration committee. 

“All of these will be considerations as we continue to evaluate the most appropriate remuneration structure for executive directors, how these align with internal CYBG pay structures and external market competitiveness …”