USA: Restoring American Financial Stability - discussion draft published by Senate Banking Committee

The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs has published a discussion draft titled Restoring American Financial Stability. The Committee advocates, inter alia, the creation of a single, federal bank regulator and providing shareholders with a non-binding vote over executive pay. Some of what the Committee proposes is already being pursued by the SEC, including making it easier for shareholders to nominate directors. A summary of the discussion draft is available here (pdf) and the Committee's press release is available here.

USA: Federal Reserve publishes proposed guidance on sound incentive compensation policies

Yesterday the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) published for comment proposed guidance on sound incentive compensation policies for banks. This guidance is based on the following three principles, which provide that incentive compensation arrangements at banks should (to quote directly from the proposed guidance):

• Provide employees incentives that do not encourage excessive risk-taking beyond the organization’s ability to effectively identify and manage risk;
• Be compatible with effective controls and risk management; and
• Be supported by strong corporate governance, including active and effective oversight by the organization’s board of directors. 

The FRB also announced that it is to begin two supervisory initiatives, as follows (to quote from its press release): 

One, applicable to 28 large, complex banking organizations, will review each firm's policies and practices to determine their consistency with the principles for risk-appropriate incentive compensation set forth in the proposal. These firm-specific policies will be assessed by supervisors in a special 'horizontal review,' a coordinated examination of practices at the 28 firms. The policies and implementing practices adopted by these firms in response to the final supervisory principles will become a part of the supervisory expectations for each firm and will be monitored for compliance.

Second, supervisors will review compensation practices at regional, community, and other banking organizations not classified as large and complex as part of the regular, risk-focused examination process. These reviews will be tailored to take account of the size, complexity, and other characteristics of the banking organization".

For comment see here (Financial Times), here (Wall Street Journal) and here (New York Times).