Goldman Sachs Group shareholders should vote against the company's executive compensation proposal because the bank has "failed to link pay with performance," proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis said in a report on Monday.
Shareholders should also vote against director James Johnson, Glass Lewis said, because of his performance as chair of the compensation committee and prior service at public companies that suffered financial issues and scandals.
"To the best of our knowledge, the company does not utilize an objective, formula-based approach to setting short-term executive compensation levels," Glass Lewis said. "Rather, the compensation committee determines annual cash bonuses on a purely discretionary basis."
The Federal Reserve has been pushing Wall Street banks to use more formulaic metrics in determining executive compensation, Reuters reported in March.
A Goldman Sachs spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.