The ramp-up to Sarbanes Oxley compliance was painful for many companies. For many, the pain got even worse in subsequent years, as many companies were left flailing for standards and guidance. Are we now seeing a repeat? Turns out the SEC has conducted a year-one review of CDA (compensation discussion and analysis) disclosures and isn't very happy. It wants shorter, less technical discussions, less focus on processes and more on the actual decisions. The SEC hopefully has learned a bit from its Sarbox experience. In the absence of solid guidance and strong examples, companies will embrace a cover-your-butt approach that will ultimately undermine the goal of the new disclosure rules, which is to provide a simple explanation to investors of why a company paid its top dogs what it did. It will be interesting to watch this unfold.  

For more:
- here's a CFO.com article