A recent report put out by Congress criticized top banking industry executives who were paid hundreds of millions of dollars in salary and bonuses while their companies were burned by the mortgage market meltdown. The report comes just days before Henry Waxman is expected to question Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide, Charles Prince from Citigroup, and Stan O'Neal from Merrill Lynch in a hearing of his Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The meeting is designed to determine if the level of compensation is justified considering the wide losses realized by shareholders who own the companies they manage.

Waxman is expected to criticize the executives whose companies lost a combined $20 billion in the second half of 2007 alone for taking such high compensation packages. Mozilo received a reported $120 million in compensation while O'Neal left Merrill Lynch with an estimated $161 million after leaving the brokerage with its largest ever loss. All three were eventually ousted from their companies, but not before receiving such large compensation packages. These striking discrepencies between pay and performance shocked shareholders and regulators while boards struggled to justify them to shareholders.