Pay disclosure on the agenda in Canada

Regulators in Canada have unveiled new proposals to improve the transparency of executive pay disclosure.

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), an umbrella group of regulatory bodies from the nation's ten provinces and three territories, said the measures take recent corporate governance developments in the US into account.

Leslie Byberg, director of corporate finance at the Ontario Securities Commission, told Reuters that the CSA had examined the current disclosure practices of 70 companies and found room for improvement.

Under the organisation's proposals, companies will be required to publicise elements of risk associated with their compensation policies and explain how they measure performance.

"It's really to enhance investors' overall picture of the risks in governance and compensation approaches of the companies they might want to invest in," Mr Byberg told the news agency.

In the US, firms are required to provide investors with an analysis of risks related to their pay structures under recent amendments from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Of the 70 organisations analysed by the CSA, eight did not meet minimum standards of disclosure.

A consultation period on the proposals will run until February 17th 2011.