Last week the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform rescheduled a hearing on CEO termination payments in connection with the mortgage lending crisis. In January, Committee Chairman Henry Waxman sent letters to Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial asking them to justify payments to outgoing CEOs despite significant subprime-related losses and decreasing stock values. The hearing follows a December 2007 hearing on the use of compensation consultants to determine CEO pay. Scheduled to testify, presumably to justify their compensation, are Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide, E. Stanley O’Neal, former CEO of Merril Lynch, and Charles Prince, former CEO of Citigroup.
