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Public Citizen Leads Group Call for SEC to Move Compensation Reform

March 17, 2015

Public Citizen Leads Group Call for SEC to Move Compensation Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s past time for the government to ensure that companies that cook the books return executive bonuses, Public Citizen and other groups said today (PDF). After all, that’s the law.

Consumer organizations, pension fund sponsors and individual investors have joined in a letter calling on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Jo White to enforce the law.

The letter explains: “Incentive compensation based on results that are later proven false should be returned.”

The provision requiring such incentive pay claw backs was approved five years ago in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. It is part of a dozen reforms aimed at compensation problems that figured at the core of the financial crisis of 2008. Though some components of the law have been implemented by regulators, the SEC has not yet finalized most of the compensation rules. In the claw back rule’s case, White’s SEC has not even proposed a rule or requested public comment.

The organizations signing the letter are: AFL-CIO, Americans for Financial Reform, As You Sow, Center for Effective Government, Demos, Institute for Policy Studies/Global Economy Project, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Other98.org, Service Employees International Union and Public Citizen.

Read the letter (PDF).

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