The not-for-profit sector

摘要

Nary a cucumber sandwich was thrown and the heckling was rather subdued. But the genteel rebellion over executive pay at the Barclays shareholders' meeting in London last month, an echo of similar disquiet at annual meetings in America (see box on next page), shows how fed up bank investors have become with their returns. No wonder. Between 2007 and the end of last year shareholders in banks globally have lost almost 10% of their investment each year, according to the Boston Consult- ing Group (see chart 1). Behind this international average lie some truly horrible losses. Investors who stuck it out in Dutch banks saw the value of their holdings fall by almost 28% a year. Holders of French, German and Swiss banks suffered average annual losses of close to 20%. Those in American and British banks lost 14% and 16% a year respectively. "The little secret to doing well...has been 'just don't hold banks'," says Jacob de Tusch-Lec, a fund manager at Artemis.