Yorkshire Building Society

I transferred all of my mother's ISAs into Yorkshire Buildings Society in 2010.  I received an annual report from them recently which was addressed to me with the voting form in my mother's name.  After reading the report I wanted to vote against the remuneration report but I found a note that said that an attorney can only vote in person at the AGM in Bradford.  Here is the letter that I have just sent to the chief executive Chris Pilling:  I will add a comment to this post if I receive a reply.


6th April 2012

Mr Chris Pilling
Yorkshire Building Society
Yorkshire Drive
Bradford
BD5 8LJ

Dear Mr Pilling,

Thank you for sending your booklet Have Your Say it’s Easy. On page 19 you say that hearing what I think is extremely important so here are my thoughts:

I am registered with you as acting for my mother under power of attorney.  The letter that you have sent is addressed to me and tells me that I am eligible to vote at the AGM and that if I can’t attend the meeting I can vote on-line or by using the attached form.  The voting form has my mother’s name on it and says on the back that a member who has granted power of attorney can still vote by post or on-line themselves but that their attorney can only vote by attending the AGM in person.

This information is contradictory and confusing.  Please can you clarify which piece of information is correct.  If an attorney can only vote in person at the AGM then please can you tell me the reason for this.  My mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and I have been appointed to act as her legal attorney in all financial matters.  I used this power of attorney to transfer my mother’s cash ISAs to YBS.  It would be nonsensical to ask my mother to sign the voting form and I cannot attend the AGM in person.  You make a point on page 13 of how your support of the Alzheimer’s Society is one of your highlights of 2011 but in practice you appear to be discriminating against one of your members who has Alzheimer’s by making it extremely difficult for her vote to be counted.

Secondly, in the current financial climate, I am finding it quite difficult to understand how the total director’s remuneration has increased by 20% this year and the non-execs by 15%.  I would be interested to know how this compares with the average pay increase for staff.  I find it particularly surprising that you were personally paid a bonus of £156,000 in order to compensate for the bonus that you might have received from your previous employer.  In my view this carrying forward of bonus is very poor practice and I note that this money which was paid to you in a single day is almost twice as much as your dedicated staff raised for charity in a whole year.

Thirdly, I think that your overall board level remuneration is far too high, particularly as YBS is a mutual society.  I would like to introduce a member’s resolution on this matter at the 2013 AGM and I understand that I need the support of 500 members in order to do this.  Please could you tell me if I have the right, as the attorney of a member, to obtain a list of other member’s contact details from you so that I can contact them for this purpose.

Finally, I am interested in attending a member’s forum mentioned on page 19.  Please can you let me know if I am eligible to attend as an attorney of a member.  If I am not eligible then please could you let me know why not.

Many thanks for your consideration of my points.