AMP Limited chairman, Catherine Brenner has resigned and will step down immediately.
The company has announced to the Australian Securities Exchange that Brenner will be replaced in the interim by Mike Wilkins.
It said Wilkins would lead the company as executive chairman while the process of replacing Brenner took place.
AMP also announced that its group general counsel and company secretary, Brian Salter, would leave the company with his outstanding deferred remuneration forfeited as a result of the board exercising its discretion.
The company has also pointed to the identification of those responsible for the fee for no service debacle and the likelihood of further exists.
Amid the Brenner and Salter exits, the company also said it had received an independent legal report and the board was satisfied that Brenner, former chief executive, Craig Meller, and other directors had not acted inappropriately in relation to the preparation of the Clayton Utz Report.
Brenner had been left with little room to move on the issue with major shareholder groups including the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) representing major industry superannuation fund investors declaring they would be using their voting rights to move against the incumbent AMP board members.
This possibly gave rise to the announcement accompanying Brenner’s resignation that “recognising the collective governance accountability for the issues raised in the Royal Commission and their impact on the reputation of AMP, the board is reducing fees for all AMP Limited board directors by 25 per cent for the remainder of the 2018 calendar year”.
The announcement also stated: “The employment and remuneration consequences for the individuals within the business responsible for the fee for no service issue will be determined on finalisation of an ongoing external employment review, which is expected to complete shortly.”
