Wall Street Reform Legislation Requires Public Companies to Revise Clawback Policies
On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Act”). Although the Act focuses primarily on the financial industry, the Act contains a section that requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) to publish rules that direct the national securities exchanges and associations to prohibit the listing of any security of an issuer that does not develop and implement an appropriate clawback policy.
Specifically, a clawback policy must provide that an issuer that is required to restate its financial statements because of a material financial reporting violation must recover from certain executive officers the amount in excess of what would have been paid to them under the issuer’s restated financial statements. No showing of misconduct or negligence on the part of the affected executives is required. In other words, public companies must recover the excess, if any, between the actual pay-out under the original financial statements and the amount payable under the restated financial statements. This policy must apply to any current or former executive officer who received incentive-based compensation (including stock options) during the three-year period preceding the date on which the restatement is required. The Act also requires that companies disclose this clawback policy to shareholders. Any former employee who was an executive officer at any time apparently will be subject to the clawback policy without regard to whether he or she was an executive officer at the time of the restatement or whether the compensation that was received had been earned prior to the three-year period.
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