No Matter How Nicely One Asks, the Answer Is No

Just how eager are companies to cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the moment?

A report out today from consulting firm Watson Wyatt finds that despite new regulations from the S.E.C., 42 percent of the companies it surveyed don't plan to reveal anything about their executive pay programs or performance goals on their 2008 proxies.

Some of you may recall that a hullabaloo about executive compensation dominated the conversation through the first half of 2007 (before everyone on Wall Street got some bigger subprime fish to fry).

New disclosure policies from the S.E.C.—now entering their second proxy season—came about as an effort to increase transparency for investors into how a company's execs are compensated.

The rules ask companies to disclose their performance goals, insofar as they can do so without putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

Key word: request. With a recession on the horizon (or already upon us, depending on your opinion), it looks like companies are in no mood to disclose any information to investors that they're not required to provide.

Even though the S.E.C. asked nicely, Watson Wyatt reports that only 31 percent of companies have no plans to reveal the compensation practices, while 27 percent are unsure what they'll end up doing.

Also likely to contribute to corporate apathy towards new disclosure principles: 77 percent of companies polled by Watson Wyatt still don't buy the idea that new regulations will do anything to improve company performance.

by Liz Gunnison

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