U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday the Obama administration wants to give the Securities and Exchange Commission power to give shareholders a stronger say over executive pay.

This financial crisis had many significant causes, but executive compensation practices were a contributing factor, Geithner said after meeting SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro, Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo and pay experts at Treasury.

He said Treasury will ask Congress to pass two pieces of legislation giving the SEC authority to force companies to give shareholders a non-binding vote on pay packages for top executives and to make internal pay committees that set pay levels and perks more independent from management.

(Reporting by Glenn Somerville and Karey Wutkowski, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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