When then Credit Suisse banker Francesco De Ferrari was lured to helm the sinking ship that was AMP in August 2018, the $17.7 million potential of his sign-on package (not counting salary) left even practised proxy advisers agog. It was, to quote Ownership Matters, “among the largest of its type ever granted to an incoming Australian company chief executive”.

But De Ferrari’s apparent departure, as revealed online on Thursday by this column, leads us to ponder how much of that package may be awarded.