[ by Howard Haykin ] SEC examiners have a plum assignment - reviewing executive compensation and governance practices of Wall Street's self-policing body, according to a government report released Wednesday. SEC examiners have collected data about the retirement plans and incentive pay for executives of FINRA as part of the regulator's effort to step up oversight of FINRA later this year, the report from the Government Accountability Office said. Criticisms of SRO Practices. [C-I realizes this might come as a surprise to some, but] FINRA - a private body overseen by the SEC - has been criticized for lavishly paying its executives and lacking transparency into its governance and operations. The Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog, for one, called FINRA's pay packages "excessive" for a nonprofit regulatory organization.  That finding was issued in a report released earlier this week.  The POGO group argued such pay practices make FINRA execs more indebted to the industry they oversee, since FINRA is funded through fees collected from member firms. FINRA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Dodd-Frank Act Requirement. The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law required the GAO to study the SEC's supervision of FINRA, specifying several areas of FINRA's operations, including executive compensation and governance.  The SEC had previously ignored certain areas and focused its oversight on FINRA's regulatory functions due to resource constraints, the report said. But examiners now are collecting data on and reviewing [the information people really want to know about] FINRA's executive compensation, governance and cooperation with state securities dealers, among other things, the GAO said. SEC examiners are reviewing the firms and organizations FINRA uses to benchmark its executives' pay packages as well as the studies conducted by FINRA pay consultant. The GAO said studies conducted by FINRA's compensation consultant found that FINRA's pay levels are comparable to other financial regulators or exchanges.  [WSJournal, 5/31/12]