Norway’s state pension fund, the world’s largest sovereign fund, has backed moves by UK engineering group Weir to drop long-term incentive plans (LTIPs) for executives.

The Financial Times reports that the support has been offered in an attempt to persuade other companies to follow suit.

The FT quotes Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global commending Weir’s “challenge to conventional thinking on remuneration.”

The fund has made it clear in the past that it wishes to see an end to LTIPs, which have become controversial after they produce payments such as the £110m for Persimmon chief executive Jeff Fairburn.

Carine Smith Ihenacho, chief corporate governance officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the oil fund, told the FT: “A simplified and more transparent remuneration structure with substantial equity exposure enables alignment of interest between shareholders and management over the long term.”