House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) announced that the group would hold a hearing on Friday Jan. 22 to discuss regulatory measures for ‘excessive’ compensation at top U.S. financial firms. In a statement delivered on Wednesday, Frank outlined the key issues to be discussed, which included: shareholder ‘say on pay’, excessive bonuses, risk-incentivizing bonuses, marginal tax rate on bonuses, possibly restricting the size and activity of financial firms, and other hot issues that have arisen following the massive government bailouts top firms received.
The hearing is scheduled after the House of Representatives passed new compensation regulations as part of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act last month. In his announcement of the hearing, Frank also raised secondary issues, suggesting that a potential decrease in activity at financial firms as a result of regulation would not be “a bad thing necessarily,” as well as questioning why firms that do not “have enough money to lend,” still give out “massive bonuses.” According to Frank, the agenda also includes “Corporate governance; housing finance which includes the GSE’s, the federal home loan banks, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac.”
Click here to read the release from the House Committee on Financial Services.
