Cuomo Seeks Pay Data on Big Banks

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday that his office has requested information from the nation's largest banks and Wall Street firms on their compensation and bonus plans for fiscal 2009.

On a conference call with reporters, Cuomo said his office sent letters Monday to eight banks and Wall Street firms that received bailout funds in 2008 under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The firms' Tarp money has since been repaid.

Cuomo said he's seeking details on the compensation paid by the banks for 2009 as well as information on how the compensation and bonus plans were determined, and the scope and magnitude of lending by those firms.

Compensation and bonuses should "be based on incentives that build strong institutions, not built on incentives that bring the nation to knees economically and are based on short-term, fictional profits," Cuomo said.

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