WASHINGTON DC, United States – Amid a public outcry, federal regulators are forcing companies to reveal more information about how much they pay their top executives.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also is changing a formula that critics say allowed companies to understate how much their senior executives are paid. At issue is how public companies report stock options and stock awards in regulatory filings. Such awards often make up most of top executives’ pay.

Company policies that encouraged excessive risk-taking and rewarded executives for delivering short-term profits were blamed for fuelling the financial crisis. The Obama administration imposed pay curbs on banks that received federal bailout money. Since then, eight of the largest such banks have repaid, or said they will repay, their federal money largely to escape caps on executive pay.

And the Federal Reserve has given the 28 biggest US banks — including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Bank of America Corp and Wells Fargo & Co — a February deadline for submitting 2010 compensation plans. The Fed also will be encouraging, though not requiring, banks to revise this year’s pay plans if they are out of step with principles the Fed has proposed to limit risk.

The SEC is meeting today to adopt expanded disclosure rules for compensation at all public companies. The rules include information on how a company’s pay policies might encourage too much risk-taking. SEC officials have said they want the new rules to be in place by spring, when companies send annual proxy disclosures to shareholders.

Companies will have to disclose how pay is determined in departments involved in the riskiest activities — or departments that produce a big chunk of company profits.