Angry investors put Aviva boss on defensive over pay

Aviva chief executive Andrew Moss today issued a mea culpa to investors as he sought to fend off growing anger about his own pay and the insurance company’s performance.

Since Moss was appointed as chief executive in 2007, its shares have halved in value.

At Aviva’s annual meeting at the Barbican in the City, he told shareholders “I care deeply about the Aviva share price and I am as frustrated about it as anybody in this room. Yet despite the difficult external environment in Europe we have many things to celebrate.”

Moss spoke as he waited to see how many of the City’s top institutions vote against his continuing in the role.

It has become clear lately that he lacks support from certain key institutions. Around 240 small investors gathered at the meeting to voice their views. They are likely to feel that since dividend payments have collapsed under Moss’s reign, his own pay, £3 million last year, should also have fallen.

In the face of shareholder anger about his pay package, Moss earlier this week waived his 2012 salary increase while the company said it was reviewing whether it pays too much “compensation” to new executives for missing out on the bonuses they would have earned from their previous employers.