Corporate Governance

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The House Financial Services Committee held hearings March 8 on a bill to require nonbinding shareholder votes on executive compensation. The bill, introduced March 1 by the committee’s chair, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., would require public corporations to submit their executive compensation disclosures annually for shareholder approval. The vote, however, would not bind or overrule boards of directors. The Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act, HR 1257, also would require disclosure of any “golden parachute” pay and benefits to executives in any proxy solicitation concerning a proposed merger, acquisition or sale of a company. The full text of the bill is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/ .