The Advisors' Blog

Compensia’s Mark Borges, who has been blogging up a storm about clawback disclosures on his members-only Proxy Disclosure Blog here on CompensationStandards.com, recently wrote a summary of his survey of Dodd-Frank compensation disclosures that have been included in annual reports or proxy statements pursuant to Item 402(w) of Regulation S-K. Here are some of Mark’s findings:

– 118 companies reported on the results of their compensation recovery analyses, with 19 companies disclosing that those analyses required clawbacks.

– The aggregate amount recovered to date is $9.8 million.

– Recoveries have ranged from $2,900 to $3.8 million, with an average of $561,000 and a median of $193,000.

– Recovery methods for bonuses have included repaying in cash a bonus already paid or earned, or reducing or canceling earned amounts. For equity, recovery methods have varied, with companies canceling future share issuances, reducing issued shares, requiring a cash repayment of value or returning unearned shares.

– Two companies have waived repayment, with one citing the impracticability exception and one disclosing that it was unable to contact former executives.

In the memo, Mark shares more detail on the recovery approaches used to date and the challenges that come with each.

– Meredith Ervine