New York City Retirement Systems reached agreements with Capital One Financial, Citigroup and Wells Fargo to broaden their policies on clawbacks — the return of incentive pay from executives — and improve disclosure of such policies, confirmed Matt Sweeney, a spokesman for city Comptroller John Liu.
“Executives need to be held financially accountable for misconduct that harms the company, and that includes improper behavior and reckless risk-taking by those they manage,” Mr. Liu said in a news release issued Thursday. “This is a vital step toward reining in out-of-control executive pay based on short-term gains.”
In return, the $127.5 billion New York City Retirement Systems — which encompasses five city pension plans — has withdrawn shareowner proposals that it had filed regarding the three financial institutions' clawback policies, Mr. Sweeney said in an interview.
Mr. Liu is the investment adviser to, and custodian and trustee of, the five city pension funds.
Mr. Sweeney said the New York City Retirement Systems owns an aggregate of 1.62 million shares of Capital One with a market value of $88.23 million; 7.41 million shares of Citigroup with a market value of $347.96 million; and 11.77 million shares of Wells Fargo with a market value of $431.41 million.
Each of the financial institutions acknowledged revisions in respective clawback policies, according to documents filed recently with the Securities and Exchange Commission — Capital One in a preliminary proxy statement filed March 5, Citigroup in an 8-K document filed Feb. 20 and Wells Fargo in a 10-K statement filed Feb. 27.
