WASHINGTON — A senior Democratic lawmaker is calling on Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke to publicly release a long-awaited report on executive compensation at banks.
The Fed first announced plans for the report in October 2009. In June 2010, Bernanke told Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, that many banks had not modified their compensation practices from what they were before the financial crisis.
At that time, Bernanke said that the Fed hoped to publish a public report on the matter by either the end of 2010 or early 2011. More than a year later, the report has not arrived.
Now Doggett has followed up with a letter to Bernanke, asking for an update on the report's status and on steps the Fed has taken to rein in excessive bonus and incentive programs at the largest U.S. banks.
"Years without accountability for big Wall Street banks brought us the worst financial crisis in generations, costing millions of jobs and leaving countless families with no nest egg," Doggett said in a written statement. "This bank compensation report is a critical part of protecting taxpayers, and I am hopeful that the Federal Reserve will publicly release it immediately."
