Treasury brings a bit of sanity back to meetings decisions for TARP recipients

The meetings industry took a beating right along with financial institutions on whether bank and credit union meetings were a frivolous use of taxpayers or shareholder/members funds.

Fortunately, the Treasury Department has brought a measure of sanity back in its Executive Compensation Rules issued June 10, 2009.

If your financial institution's Board of Directors has been concerned about planned meetings, here is a suggested board policy to address the issue.

For many of the banks I work with, the reduced budget for training and travel has been more of a constraint than public appearance of waste spending. But as the budgets loosen up, the guidance from Treasury and a good board policy should help.