France, June 9 -- Oxfam France on Tuesday warned that a trend towards larger shareholder payouts was fuelling inequality and called for new limits on executive pay and dividend payments.

The charity argues that major firms have the resources to help strengthen Europe's long-term economic future.

"While public finances run dry, companies have more than enough resources to invest in our future and Europe's economic competitiveness, but they prefer to reward shareholders," said Alexandre Poidatz, Oxfam's spokesperson on multinational regulation.

Oxfam said this pattern was visible across Europe's biggest corporate players. Its report found that the 100 largest companies in Europe by turnover paid out an average of 70 percent of their prof...