The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission caused some controversy yesterday after it reversed an earlier decision to force executives to disclose the face value of stock grants as they are given to executives. This rule is one of many that came as the result of an executive compensation overhaul earlier this year. Specifically, this new change, going into effect immediately, allows companies to disclose only the portions of the stock grants that are usable by executives. This allows companies to dispense stock grants to executives that will not be disclosed to investors until they are exercisable. While many people have criticized this move, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox insisted that this rule was actually what the commission intended when it first adopted its new executive compensation policies. The only two major problems seen with the new rule were policies dealing with retirement and resignations. When executives retire, their stock grants are immediately expensed at full value. This means that those retiring executives may appear overcompensated, when in fact they are on par with others. Meanwhile, if an executive leaves a company before the full value of their options vest, then the full amount would be reported when there was actually nothing received. While the SEC noted these problems, they argued that these new policies needed to be pushed out before early 2007, when many companies will be reporting under the new regulations.