Shareholders meetings this year seem mundane

You might have thought there would be a lot of fireworks at annual meetings of top Wall Street banks. But it hasn't really turned out that way. To be sure, there were some small victories that shareholders might point to. For one thing, Merrill Lynch has agreed to elect directors annually for one-year terms, a move shareholder activists favored. The company explained that activist groups convinced the board such a move is in line with best practices.  

And then there are the more subtle, non-victory victories. One could argue that the move by C. Michael Armstrong to step down as head of the audit and risk committees at Citigroup was a win for shareholders. Ditto for the move by Mary Pugh to step down as head of Washington Mutual's finance committee; her money management firm was said to have a close relationship with the thrift. Shareholders led by the union group CtW opposed both.  

In some cases, such as Citigroup, shareholders had some pointed questions. But for the most part, we haven't seen anything really dramatic. In the case of struggling Morgan Stanley, the annual shareholder votes seemed to deliver a resounding victory for CEO John Mack. Then again, a lot of CEOs already have rolled in this industry. It's hard to top that via proxy votes on sometimes arcane issues. - Jim