Man of Letters:
Bogle Joins Campaign
Urging SEC To Act
on Executive Pay And
Cites His New Book
By PAUL DAVIES, WSJ
from the Web, April 16, 2006
New York City, Apr.15 -- A
number of financial executives have written to the Securities and Exchange
Commission about its proposed changes in executive-pay disclosure, including
John C. Bogle, former chairman of Vanguard Group.
He supports the increased disclosure, but urges the SEC to go further by
requiring mutual-fund companies to disclose the total dollar amount of direct
and indirect compensation paid to their five highest-paid officers and fund
managers.
Many fund companies are private, and thus aren't required to disclose
compensation information. Publicly traded fund companies only disclose
compensation for top executives -- not their fund managers.
Mr. Bogle also urged the SEC to require all public companies to disclose senior
executives' deferred compensation plans and the interest rates used to accrue
earnings in the plans. He pointed to General Electric -- which he
called a "generally upstanding" company -- which used interest rates of as much
as 13% in its deferred compensation plans.
Before taking his stance calling for more "sunlight" on compensation matters,
Mr. Bogle opened his four-page letter dated April 10 with a plug for his new
book "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism." The book focuses
intensely on what Mr. Bogle calls "grossly excessive" executive compensation.
(Emphasis Added)
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