Bank regulators are renewing efforts to require Wall Street executives to defer more compensation and claw back bonuses if losses happen, according to The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. regulators are hoping to finish rules called for in the sweeping post-financial crisis banking regulation known as the Dodd-Frank Act, the Journal said. The thrust of the rules would be to more closely match pay with the long-term health of financial institutions. Talks are in an early stage and involve the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the newspaper said, citing sources with knowledge of the plans.
Banks and other financial firms faced a backlash over pay after the crisis because some traders and executives reaped millions of dollars for taking risks that later blew up, requiring taxpayer-funded bailouts. But the industry has stymied regulators' earlier efforts to set restrictions on compensation, helped in part because of disagreement between the half-dozen regulators who have some role in bank supervision, the newspaper said.
While banks including Goldman Sachs have voluntarily implemented rules on vesting and sales of stock compensation, new rules could mandate stiffer restrictions and expand the number of bank employees subject to them, the newspaper said.
Securities firms paid out $31.4 billion in bonuses in New York in 2017, the most in a decade, according to the Journal.
Read the full Journal report here.