Jeremy Corbyn said some salaries paid to company bosses and top footballers were “utterly ridiculous” and that there should be a cap on their income to stop it soaring. The idea immediately received widespread criticism, with a former adviser branding it “idiotic”. Later, his spokesman said he “misspoke” and when asked about it during another interview, Corbyn said a better way of curbing executive pay was by controlling the pay ratio between the highest and lowest earners in a company.

View photos More The chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news ) (RBS) is to see his maximum pay pot slashed under plans being drawn up by its remuneration committee, reflecting directors' conviction that the lender will remain in majority taxpayer ownership for years to come. Sky News has learnt that RBS has begun consulting with leading City shareholders on proposals to reduce the long-term incentive plan award available to Ross McEwan from £3m to £1.75m from next year.

21 US stocks retreat, banking shares lead decline AFP – 33 minutes ago View Photo

Wall Street stocks finished lower Friday following profit taking in banking shares and some other equities that had scored big gains in the post-election rally. Bank of America (Swiss: BAC-USD.SW - news ) lost 2.2 percent and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news ) shed 1.7 percent in reversals of the large gains seen since the November 8 election prompted a big rally in the sector.

One of the City’s most prominent asset managers has dropped a bombshell into the debate on boardroom pay by proposing that Britain’s top companies cap the sums they can pay to their bosses ...

The chairman of Carillion, the FTSE-250 infrastructure group, is in talks about a role advising the Prime Minister on responsible business as she plots a string of reforms to curb corporate misbehaviour ...

A co-chair of parliament’s inquiry into the collapse of BHS is demanding the extension of tests to assess company directors’ suitability, and raised fresh questions about the stewardship of Sir Philip Green’s business empire ...

Businesses throughout the UK ended the working week holding Brexit meetings. Whether they were full-blown crisis talks in the boardroom or an idle five minutes at the water cooler, leaving the European Union will eventually affect every British worker...

TPG Capital was sued on Thursday by its former head of public affairs, who accused the private equity giant of ignoring his warnings that the firm may have violated securities regulations and defrauded investors out of millions of dollars as a result.     The whistleblower lawsuit, almost without precedent in the tight-knit world of private equity, was filed ...

By Nishant Kumar LONDON (Reuters) - Alliance Trust invoked Elliott Advisors' track record on Thursday, asking shareholders to reject the activist investor's call for a boardroom overhaul and saying the fund was trying to engineer an exit from the investment trust. Alliance runs one of Britain's oldest investment trusts and is engaged in a tussle with its largest individual shareholder Elliott ...

One of the UK's biggest publicly listed water companies has lured Sir John Parker, the architect of a new push to improve boardroom diversity, as its new chairman‎. Sky News has learnt that Pennon Group, which owns South West Water and Viridor, the waste-recycling company, will announce Sir John‎'s appointment on Friday. The news is likely to be well-received by shareholders in Pennon, which ...

Before the 2010 general election, the preceding three Labour administrations had sought to persuade major companies to increase 'gender diversity in the boardroom ' – GDITB - although it has long been understood that there are mitigating factors for the ...

Elaine Wynn confirmed Thursday that she will seek another term on the board of directors of Wynn Resorts, which said it wouldn't nominate her for re-election. Wynn, who has been on the board of directors ...

Wintergreen Advisers renewed its criticism of Coca-Cola's executive compensation plan on Tuesday, saying the company didn't do enough to inform shareholders about bonuses that can be awarded to management... 

A Briton has been named as the new chief executive of McDonald's, as the fast food chain tackles disappointing sales worldwide. Steve Easterbrook will become the new president and CEO of the company in March. His predecessor, Don Thompson, had only held the position for two-and-a-half years. Net income at McDonald's plummeted by 21% in the fourth quarter to $1.1bn (£726m), as customers shopped ...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser promised on Tuesday that the German engineering group would focus more on steady internal growth and higher-margin services than on attention-grabbing M&A deals. "I will consider growth to be mostly organic rather than acquired," Kaeser said at Siemens's Capital Markets Day, setting out details of his strategy. "We will not spend our money ...

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) - Hedge fund mogul William Ackman told investors they could see a $6 billion (4 billion pound) payday when he closes the chapter on Allergan Inc. , his firm's biggest bet of 2014. One week after Allergan agreed to sell itself to rival Actavis Plc. , Ackman wrote in his quarterly investment letter that his Pershing Square Capital Management, the Botox-maker ...

(Reuters) - Merger talks between Allergan Inc and white knight Actavis Plc are focussed on narrowing a gap of about $3 billion (1.90 billion pounds) between what has been offered and what is wanted, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Actavis is willing to pay around $200 per share, or $60 billion, while Allergan wants more than $210 per share, Bloomberg said. Actavis and Allergan declined to ...

By Ludwig and Burger Frankfurt, (Reuters) - Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG said on Monday it would buy U.S. oilfield equipment maker Dresser-Rand Group Inc for $7.6 billion (4.6 billion pounds) in a move that would significantly boost the German company's oil and gas business in North America. Germany's Siemens said its $83 per-share bid was unanimously supported by Dresser-Rand's board of ...

Barclays is to name one of Scotland's most senior businessmen as its next chairman, recruiting from the FTSE-100 insurance giant Aviva...

A former member of Barclays' boardroom pay committee is to chair a new body that will try to counter accusations that the City is obsessed by short-term gains rather than the long-term health of the UK economy. Sky News has learnt that Simon Fraser, who recently stepped down as a non-executive director of the bank, which has endured a fractious recent relationship with shareholders, is to chair ...

Warren Buffett, whose conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway is Coca-Cola's largest shareholder, has denied he was working on a takeover of Coke, the world's largest soda company...

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc is working on its next move in a potential $100 billion battle for Britain's AstraZeneca Plc after having two bids rejected, as deal-making grips the healthcare industry. Pfizer said on Monday it made a 58.8 billion pounds bid approach to AstraZeneca in January and had contacted its British rival again on April 26 seeking further ...

Often the shifts follow pressure from shareholders, who in recent years have criticized soaring executive pay and over-the-top perks. But it doesn't mean that the "extras" package that comes with a C-suite job is in decline - in many cases the surging value of more mundane freebies like financial planning assistance or life insurance is more than making up the difference. "Companies are really ...

Barclays faces becoming embroiled in yet another row over its pay practices amid questions over the future of the director who chairs its board remuneration committee. Sky News understands that the bank, which was forced to confront damaging revelations about customer data security on Sunday, has asked Sir John Sunderland to stay on beyond the end of his nine-year term in June. The request risks ...

Microsoft is reportedly preparing to name Indian-born executive Satya Nadella as its new boss within the next few days...