Big changes coming to executive pay

Shareholders may soon be able to vote on the pay packages for top executives of financial firms, according to a report from Bloomberg today. The Obama administration is expected to seek new powers for the Securities and Exchange Commission to force financial firms to give shareholders the right to vote on executive pay packages.

Congress would have to approve this plan, and you can expect a major lobbying effort to stop it. But given the mood of Congress toward the financial industry, I suspect a bill on compensation in the financial industry has a good chance of passage.