The Advisors' Blog

– Broc Romanek, CompensationStandards.com

Yesterday, I blogged about the progress of the House-Senate conference committee deliberations and the release of the “Conference Base Text.” Later on, Rep. Barney Frank issued this press release stating that debate over the investor protection and executive compensation provisions will begin at 11 am today.

The press release contains a long list of changes to the base text that the House Democrats seek. As noted in the ISS Blog, among other changes sought by these House Democrats are these:

– Require separate shareholder votes on “golden parachute” retirement payouts when companies seek approval for mergers, consolidations, or other transactions. This provision was in the House bill, but not the Senate measure.

– Add a House provision on enhanced compensation oversight for the financial industry. The House members seek to require “all federal financial regulators to issue and enforce joint compensation rules specifically applicable to all financial institutions with a federal regulator.”

– Add a House provision that SEC apply independence standards to compensation committee consultants that are competitively neutral and treat large and small consultants equally.

– Add a House provision to direct the SEC to require large institutional investment managers (i.e., those subject to Section 13(f) requirements) to disclose their proxy voting on advisory votes and golden parachute matters.

This Washington Post article describes how the rare “made-for-TV” reconciliation process feels like…