Limits on Wall Street Pay Are Back on Regulators’ Agenda

When last proposed in 2016, the rules would have required the biggest financial firms to defer payment of at least half of executives’ bonuses for four years, a year longer than common industry practice. It also would have established a seven-year clawback period, in which executives would be required to return their bonuses if their actions hurt the institution or if a firm had to restate financial results….

Alan Johnson, a consultant who helps banks design their pay plans, said much of what regulators had hoped to accomplish with the pay rules is already a reality. Today’s bankers and traders are paid less than a decade ago, and banks have curbed the riskiest kind of trading and lending that drove losses during the meltdown.

“I think the regulators are going to refight a war they’ve already won,” Mr. Johnson said.

The Wall Street Journal / March 5, 2019

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