Director Remuneration pay: trends during and after the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009

Abstract
The objective of this study is to examine the trends of director remuneration in Malaysia’s publicly listed companies. The proxies for executive pay are based on cash remuneration consisting of fees, salary, bonuses, and benefits to kin. Based on the data collected from 486 publicly listed companies in Bursa Malaysia from 2007 to 2009, we empirically tested findings that the trends for remuneration increased during and after the financial crisis. The study also reveals that the structure of remuneration, such as salary and bonuses for executives, showed an increasing trend during and after the financial crisis; however, it shows that the trend of director remuneration in family firms after the financial crisis was decreasing. Further analysis indicates that family members were willing to accept lower fees, bonuses, and benefits to kin in order to maintain cash flow. Our study suggests that no expropriation existed in family firms during and after the financial crisis. However, executives in non-family firms are less interested in accepting lower remuneration as part of a contract.