Executive Compensation

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2017 began with a heightened level of uncertainty as the beginning of the year brought significant change in the legal environment, including a change in administration that promised to significantly alter the tenor of regulation. While certain changes did occur in 2017, in many respects, 2018 is setting itself up as the year to watch…

On December 5, 2017, the Financial Reporting Council launched a consultation on its proposal to significantly revise the UK Corporate Governance Code.

The amendments seek to encourage continued improvement in the quality of corporate governance in the UK and are centered around the themes of company culture and diversity, employee and other stakeholder representation, responding…

The recently proposed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) includes executive compensation tax reforms that, if enacted, would have significant implications for the way in which companies structure their compensation programs.

The Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on November 2, 2017, and may undergo significant revisions as part of the…

On September 21, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued helpful guidance to assist companies in complying with the CEO/median employee pay ratio disclosure requirement (the “Rule”) under Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K. The guidance also addresses the issue of SEC…

Questions for Boards and Management

On April 10, 2017 Wells Fargo released the independent directors’ report on sales practices at its community bank. While the report covers familiar elements of the widely-publicized accounts-creation  problems at the bank, it also takes an inside look at the organization to determine what caused the problems in the first place and what allowed them to persist for years before last fall’s regulatory enforcement actions.  The report cites the following as principal causes:
Continue Reading With the Benefit of Hindsight: The Wells Fargo Sales Practices Investigation Report

President Trump has repeatedly used his Twitter account to single out companies for criticism of their business practices, raising the question for a broad range of public companies of how to prepare for and potentially respond to such criticism. Of course, rhetorical attempts by politicians to influence the conduct of private enterprise – commonly referred…

Cleary Gottlieb and PwC’s Governance Insights Center have teamed up to create the Executive Compensation Series, which looks at the factors motivating boards to increasingly engage with shareholders about executive compensation. The first edition of the series is now available and discusses issues such as the impact of Dodd-Frank on executive compensation, elements of effective CD&A design and the influence of proxy advisors on compensation.
Continue Reading Boards, Shareholders and Executive Pay