HSBC will be the latest firm to face a shareholder vote on executive pay later, amid growing concern about high rewards for bosses not reflecting company performance.
The bank is holding its annual general meeting (AGM) at which shareholders get to express their views about how the company is being run.
Chief executive Stuart Gulliver is in line for a pay package worth £7.2m.
But shareholder advisory body, Pirc, is advising shareholders to vote no.
Last month rival Barclays saw 27% of its shareholders vote against the pay recommendations.
That was almost three times the number who voted against the year before.
The insurance giant Aviva, bookies William Hill, miner Xstrata, Mirror Group newspapers' owner Trinity Mirror and Premier Foods, all recently faced shareholder anger about pay levels for executives.
There is concern that the pay levels being awarded do not reflect the performance of the companies.
Recent research carried out for the BBC by Manifest, the investor voting advisory service, found that the typical pay of bosses at the majority of the UK's largest publicly listed companies rose 11% last year to £3.65m.
But even if the vast majority of shareholders vote down a proposal on executive pay, their decision only counts as a recommendation to the board, and can be ignored.
The Department for Business is consulting on legislation which would mean pay deals require the support of 75% of shareholders.
According to Sarah Wilson, chief executive of Manifest, there were twice the number of dissenting votes this year as last, as dissatisfaction grows in what is being described by some as the "shareholder spring".
HSBC has performed comparatively better for shareholders than rival Barclays; its shares have fallen 26% from the start of last year, while Barclays' share price dropped by 35% over the same time frame.
Earlier this month HSBC revealed a fall in profits after the company revalued the amount of debt on its books.
Pre-tax profit for the first three months of the year was $4.3bn (£2.7bn), down 12% on the $4.9bn the bank made a year earlier.
However, revenue and underlying profits increased sharply and the bank said it had made a "good start to the year".
The bank is cutting costs, including 30,000 jobs worldwide as it looks to save $3.5bn worth of annual costs. Some 2,000 of those posts will go from its UK operations.
Protesters are expected to stage a range of protests outside the meeting in London's financial district.
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