The executives of listed companies should limit themselves to a golden handshake of no more than one year’s salary if they leave a company because of a difference of opinion, economic affairs minister Maxime Verhagen said on Friday.

However, the minister is opposed to anchoring some parts of the voluntary corporate governance code – which covers executive pay and standards – in law.
If this happened, managers would instead start ticking items off lists, rather than ‘thinking about what is socially acceptable’, Verhagen said.
Verhagen made his remarks in a speech at the presentation of a new report on monitoring corporate governance.