The Obama administration will order seven financial services companies that received the most government assistance to cut salaries of top executives by 90 percent on average, a person familiar with the situation said last night.

The treasury department’s announcement will come this week, the person said. Total compensation, including bonuses and other benefits, for the 25 highest-paid executives must be reduced by about 50 per cent, the person said. There is growing public disgust over the billions of dollars in federal bailouts received by US banks. - (Bloomberg)