A month into the Trump presidency, there have been a number of important statements from the executive branch on the regulation of executive compensation impacting the financial services industry. On February 3, 2017, President Trump issued a statement on the core principles for regulating the U.S. financial system (“Core Principles”). The statement requires the Treasury and all heads of member agencies of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to report within 120 days (by June 3, 2017) all existing laws, treaties, guidance, regulations, etc., that promote the Core Principles, and all such laws, etc., that inhibit the Core Principles. The Core Principles provide some insight into future regulation or repeal efforts by the Trump administration impacting executive compensation.

The Core Principles

The Core Principles include empowering Americans to make independent financial decisions and informed choices in the marketplace, save for retirement, and build individual wealth. This statement appears to favor a more hands-off approach to individual investment decisions. The Core Principles also require regulations that foster economic growth through more rigorous regulatory impact analysis addressing “systemic risk and market failures, such as moral hazard and information asymmetry.” This would presumably require a more extensive review of the regulatory cost of compliance favoring deregulation. However, the focus on systemic risk arising from moral hazard and information asymmetry could impact executive compensation to the extent compensation practices are seen to further individual conduct that could lead to systemic risk. The Core Principles further require regulations to enable American companies to be competitive with foreign firms in domestic and foreign markets and to advance American interests in international financial regulatory negotiations and meetings. The other Core Principles include preventing taxpayer-funded bailouts; making regulations more efficient, effective, and appropriately tailored; and restoring public accountability within federal financial regulatory agencies and rationalizing the regulatory framework, arguably all in favor of deregulation or possibly regulation by stated principles rather than by strict construction.

Potential Impact on Executive Compensation

Based on review of the Core Principles and recent regulatory statements from the Trump administration, including the reduction of two regulations for every one regulation added, the re-proposed rules under Section 956 of Dodd-Frank are not likely to be approved in their final form given the scope and breadth of the regulations. Arguably, these rules would go against the Core Principles favoring deregulation and could inhibit American competitiveness with foreign firms in domestic and foreign markets as to the recruitment and retention of talent. Also, given that the re-proposed regulations were based on international executive compensation standards (particularly, regulatory guidance promulgated in Europe), adopting the re-proposed rules might not be viewed as advancing American interests in international financial regulatory negotiations.

Presumably in furtherance of these Core Principles, on February 6, 2017, the Acting Chairman of the SEC, Michael S. Piwowar, issued a statement requesting comments from the public within the next 45 days (by March 23, 2017) on the challenges that issuers are facing with compliance with the CEO pay ratio disclosure rule under Dodd-Frank. The CEO pay ratio disclosure rule requires public companies to disclose the ratio of the median of the annual total compensation of all employees to the annual total compensation of the CEO. Gathering data to prepare the calculation has been challenging for large employers with a diverse domestic and global workforce, and the ratio itself has been criticized as not providing meaningful information. Based on comments, the SEC Acting Chairman stated that SEC staff will be directed to determine whether additional relief is appropriate. As to the review of other executive compensation provisions under Dodd-Frank that are currently in effect, such as say-on-pay and clawback requirements, they likely will be subject to the overall regulatory review, but their repeal might not be first on the agenda.

The final area of interest is President Trump’s pre-election criticisms of the treatment of carried interests, which generally are tax-favored partnership interests that, when sold, frequently generate profits that are paid to private equity fund managers as compensation. However, that compensation may be taxed at a long-term capital gains rate of 20 percent or less, rather than as ordinary income. Thus far under the new presidency, there have been no official statements in this area, but the discussion of carried interests could become part of the broader tax reform agenda expected from the Trump administration.

This year, financial services organizations can expect a new direction on executive compensation to take shape.