Executive Compensation Standards Are Changing for U.S. Companies: Dodd-Frank Act

As described in a recent Osler Update, on July 21, 2010, sweeping financial reform was signed into U.S. law by President Obama. The new law affects more than just Wall Street financial institutions and contains new requirements on corporate governance, federal securities law and executive compensation provisions.

In the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, there are lots of new goodies on the executive compensation front. While most of the new compensation rules would not seem to apply to Canadian issuers (unless they are voluntarily complying with U.S. compensation disclosure rules instead of Canadian rules), they may indeed set a new standard for best practices because U.S. institutional investors will become accustomed to these requirements: