(Bloomberg) -- The chief executive officer of London Stock Exchange Group Plc is set to join the FTSE 100’s highest paid executives after shareholders voted to more than double his maximum pay to about £13 million ($16.2 million). 

Nearly 89% of shareholders voted in favor of the new directors’ remuneration policy at the firm’s annual general meeting on Thursday, according to a statement. 

David Schwimmer, a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. who joined the LSE in 2018, is a test case for those who say UK corporates must better reward financial executives to compete against the US and Asia. 

The best-paid boss of a UK-listed company last year was AstraZeneca Plc’s Pascal Soriot, who was awarded £16.9 million, according to data compiled by the High Pay Centre think tank. He could earn more in future — though even then, Soriot’s earnings wouldn’t get him into the top 100 best-paid CEOs in the US, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.

For Schwimmer, the pay rise could bump him from the middle of the pack to one of the best-paid FTSE 100 bosses, broadly comparable to the heads of RELX Plc, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and BAE Systems Plc. Typically, these multimillion-pound packages only pay out in full if the executives meet targets, and in some cases can be clawed back if performance reverses in later years. 

The board of the stock exchange changed its pay policy after several of its top executives were recruited by other firms, including Chief Financial Officer Anna Manz and Chief Operating Officer David Shalders.

Glass Lewis, a prominent proxy advisory firm, encouraged shareholders earlier this month to oppose the plan, saying it would prefer to see increases doled out over time. 

Since Schwimmer took the reins at LSEG in August 2018, the firm’s stock price has doubled, giving it a market capitalization of almost £50 billion. He led the company’s $27 billion acquisition of Refinitiv, which kicked off a new era for the company where the majority of its revenue comes from data. 

Earlier Thursday, Schwimmer said the group’s data partnership with Microsoft Corp. was preparing to launch its first products within months. 

Median pay for chief executive officers at FTSE 100 companies increased 16% to £3.91 million in 2022, though this is £70,000 below the average pay package awarded in 2017, according to the latest figures from the High Pay Centre.

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