The US House of Representatives on Friday passed a legislation aimed at curbing executive pay and bonus packages.

House members voted 237-185 to institute restrictions.

The legislation would provide shareholders with the right to vote on compensation packages and regulators will be required to issue new guidelines to prohibit pay packages that encourage inappropriate risks.

According to the House, high pay and bonus packages encourage bankers and traders to take big risks that could bring down the economy.

It should be noted here that United States’ nine biggest banks, which are getting billions of dollars in federal bailout aid, paid individual bonuses of $1 million to about 4,800 executives.  

Speaking on the topic, Rep. Barney Frank said, "Under this bill, the question of compensation amounts will now be in the hands of shareholders and the question of systemic risk will be in the hands of the government." 

However, the new legislation would ban risky compensation only in firms, which possess $1 billion in assets. 

However, the future of the bill is still doubtful as many of the similar measures passed previously by the House were not entertained by the Senate.