Cuomo Requests Data on Top Exec Pay

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday asked nine financial institutions receiving funds through the federal government's financial rescue plan to provide information about bonuses and compensation to be paid their top executives.

In separate letters Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo's office requested a "detailed accounting" of expected payments to top management in the upcoming bonus season. He is looking for information from companies that have received or are expected to receive funds under the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The nine he asked to supply the information are Bank of America Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., Morgan Stanley Inc., State Street Corp., and Wells Fargo & Co.

The information requests are part of his office's ongoing probe into executive compensation on Wall Street.

Mr. Cuomo recently asked American International Group Inc. to provide his office with details about executive compensation and other expenditures that the insurer paid out as it neared collapse this year.

Wednesday's letters also asked for details on bonuses awarded to employees who received more than $250,000 in compensation in 2006 and 2007.

The attorney general requested that the companies provide his office with details about policies, procedures, and protections in place to review company expenditures and about what their boards plan to doe to protect taxpayer funds. He said he wants the information by Nov. 5.

Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has asked nine major financial firms that collectively have received $125 billion in capital infusions from the federal government to provide information on billions of dollars they spent on compensation and bonuses.

Rep. Waxman, D-Calif., requested total and average compensation paid to all employees, a breakdown of the number of employees receiving more than $500,000 in annual compensation, and compensation paid to the 10 highest-paid employees.

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