COMPANIES The House of Representatives on Friday voted to hand federal regulatory agencies strong new powers to control executive compensation, just a day after it emerged that the largest Wall Street recipients of public bail-out funds had paid thousands of employees bonuses of $1m or more last year.
The legislation, which was passed by a margin of 237 to 185, which was broadly along party lines, bans directors on compensation committees from having financial ties to their companies and gives shareholders a non-binding vote on executive pay. It would also allow regulators to restrict incentive-based compensation practices that jeopardise the health of larger financial institutions.
