Ben & Barney: Compensation Consultants!

No surprise to read this:

The Obama administration has begun serious talks about how it can change compensation practices across the financial-services industry,

But it IS disconcerting to read THIS:

including at companies that did not receive federal bailout money

Both Bennie Bernanke and Barney Frank are going to "help" the banks.

Among ideas being discussed are Fed rules that would curb banks' ability to pay employees in a way that would threaten the "safety and soundness" of the bank -- such as paying loan officers for the volume of business they do, not the quality. The administration is also discussing issuing "best practices" to guide firms in structuring pay.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) is working on legislation that could strengthen the government's ability both to monitor compensation and to curb incentives that threaten a company's viability or pose a systemic risk to the economy

For the vast majority of lending officers, the "riskiness" of a loan is determined only when (or if) the loan goes bad, (which could happen long after the officer leaves the bank, or retires).

By the way, if a loan officer has a disproportionate share of "bad" loans, that loan officer gets fired. I know that "fired" is not a term that Government understands.

Let's see if this gets past Chris Dodd...