During the first quarter of 2009, 367 companies, out of the 7,000-some that report dividend information to Standard & Poor’s, decreased their payments. Conversely, just 283 companies announced dividend increases, the company reported. The cuts amounted to a $77 billion drop in payments to shareholders.

In the more than half a century that S&P has recorded these statistics, this is the first time that dividend cuts have outnumbered increases, according to the firm. “Since 1955, the average has been 15 increases for every decrease. Now it’s three increases for every four decreases,” said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst with S&P, in a release. more

CFOs have long complained about the cost of litigation, and it is not just the perpetual whining about overly generous jury awards. You can win the case, and the litigation costs still will blow the balance sheet.

One source estimates legal costs at Fortune 500 companies at $500 million per year on average. Even with smaller, Fortune 1000 companies, observers aren’t surprised to see costs running $200 million. In 2006, litigation costs amounted to 20 percent of corporate profit, reports Deidre Paknad, CEO, PSS Systems, citing figures from the eLaw Forum. In 2009, corporate profits have shrunk but litigation costs remain high, rising to 35 percent of corporate profit.

Since winning a legal case can be almost as costly as losing one, it is time to shift the decision-making from the corporate counsel to the CFO. Given the amounts of money involved, the decision to pursue litigation cannot be a legal decision. Rather, it is a C-level business risk decision with serious bottom line ramifications. more

The U.S. Senate will vote this afternoon on the President Obama’s nomination for chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler.

Here’s a profile of Gensler, and here’s some criticism, from the left (during the depths of the financial crisis), of his nomination. ###

If you thought David Walker was sharp, thoughtful, and independent-minded during his tenure as Comptroller General of the United States (I sure did), you ought to hear him now.

Actually, you can do just that.

ACL has posted an interview with Walker, now touring the country as the president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Walker delves into the evolving role of internal audit, government accountability, and the materiality of fraud and waste in organizations, among other GRC issues.

For more on Walker, see his interview with Business Finance. ###

Although I wrote about it in January of this year, it’s still hard for me to grasp that a drastic revision of the time-hallowed tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance may be at hand. But such is indeed the case as Congress wrestles with the new administration’s plans for a fundamental reshaping of the national health-care ecosystem. more