SEC eyes crackdown and regulation on exorbitant Wall Street bonuses
D.C., Washington, United States (AHN) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission joined legislators and stockholders who want to rein in exorbitant Wall Street bonuses, pinpointed as the prime incentive for large banks, brokerage companies and hedge funds to take excessive risks.
The excessive risk taking, in turn, is being blamed for the global financial crisis in 2008.
The SEC proposed to mandate companies to provide the regulator details of all bonuses paid out to staff as part of their incentive-based pay. The SEC would have the power to prohibit the award of excessive bonuses.
The regulator proposed the oversight over bonuses because of the 2008 global financial crisis, which highlighted the risks large banks place on the financial system and subsequently the national economy. The proposal is similar to regulations suggested by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and required by the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law.
The SEC proposal came right after Wall Street firms handed out performance incentives amounting to millions to their staff while majority of Americans are still reeling from the impact of the crisis.
Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan got a $9.05 million bonus in restricted stocks and Thomas Montag, head of BofA’s global banking and markets, got $14.3 million in restricted stocks and $900,000 in cash.
Other companies, in response to pressure from regulators on bonuses, increased instead base salaries. Goldman Sachs gave Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein a $12.6 million stock bonus and hiked his base salary to $2 million for 2011 from $600,000 last year.
Citigroup hiked CEO Vikram Pandit’s base pay to $1.75 million from $1 million.
The SEC proposal would give more teeth to shareholders’ opinion on compensation after the regulator allowed stockholders in January a nonbinding vote on salaries, bonuses and retirement packages.
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