US "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg on Friday declined to request 17 financial firms that doled out $1.6bn (€1.2bn) in "ill advised" executive compensation to return the excessive payouts, saying to do so would be unfair to the companies and could trigger private lawsuits and additional Congressional investigation.

Feinberg released a report that found 17 firms--including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup--made the bonus-like payouts to top executives in late 2008 and early 2009 even as the companies were receiving taxpayer assistance. Feinberg, the Obama administration's special master for compensation, said he deemed these payments as "ill advised" both for the sheer amount--some individual payouts exceed $10m, he said--and the lack of reasonable rationale for their payment.