Commentary: Evidence doesn't link bankers' pay to crisis

Group of 20 leaders are pondering restrictions on bankers' pay at their meeting in Pittsburgh, but there is, in fact, little evidence to cite compensation as one of the causes of the financial crisis, writes Jeffrey Friedman of the University of Texas at Austin. Bank CEOs actually owned about 10 times as much of their bank's stock as they were typically paid per year, according to a study by professors at Ohio State University. Additionally, a study by compensation consultant Watson Wyatt Worldwide shows that banks that richly rewarded performance were not more likely to go bankrupt than others.

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