(Reuters) - U.S. regulators may force big financial firms to award half or more of their executive pay in the form of stock or other deferred compensation instead of cash, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation. The move, which could affect big Wall Street firms such as Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, is aimed at curbing excessive risk taking behavior that contributed to the financial crisis, the newspaper said.

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(Reuters) - Stocks drifted on Monday as investors were reluctant to push stocks higher after briefly touching another high for the year. The dollar rose against other major currencies while the euro fell, hitting a record low against the Swiss franc and a two-week low versus the greenback as investors fretted over euro zone debt problems.

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(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve does not believe any one hedge fund can topple the financial system and therefore the private pools of capital may escape direct supervision by the central bank, an industry source familiar with the Fed's position said. The newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council, which includes the Treasury secretary and 14 U.S. supervisors, including the Fed, are in the early stages of determining which non-bank firms pose a threat to the financial system.

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(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) said on Monday it had restarted 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Nigerian Oso condensate production, which was shut in following a militant raid on an offshore platform on November 14. Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, said it was behind the November attack in which seven Exxon workers were kidnapped and later rescued. Oso is one of Nigeria's biggest condensate fields with about eight platforms whose total output averages about 75,000 bpd.

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(Reuters) - As U.S. regulators race to write rules that will put Wall Street reform legislation into action, some industry groups are trying to apply the brakes, latching onto linguistic loopholes in the law to bolster their case. The new law, which aims to prevent a repeat of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, requires regulators to potentially write hundreds of rules, many under a tight time-frame.

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(Reuters) - A Russian billionaire set the terms on Monday for a merger of Russia's top two producers of potash, Uralkali (URKA.MM) and Silvinit (SILV.MM) to create the world's No. 2 player. The deal marks another step in consolidation in the global potash business, where a battle for dominance spurred BHP Billiton's (BHP.AX)(BLT.L) attempt to take over Canada's Potash Corp (POT.N), which ultimately failed. Russia is one of just 12 countries that produce potash, used as an ingredient in fertilizers.

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(Reuters) - Vimpelcom's (VIP.N) $6.6 billion bid for telecoms assets owned by Weather Investments was hanging by a thread after Norwegian shareholder Telenor (TEL.OL) said on Monday it would not back the deal. Telenor's opposition to the deal -- which would see Vimpelcom taking a controlling stake in Egypt's Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA) and all of Italy's Wind -- means that all three independent Vimpelcom directors must back the long-running transaction.

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(Reuters) - Genzyme Corp (GENZ.O), which is fighting off a hostile $18.5 billion bid from Sanofi-Aventis SA (SASY.PA), will on Monday take another stab at persuading investors that its experimental multiple sclerosis drug is worth more than Sanofi's projections. Genzyme, a U.S.-based biotech company that makes drugs for rare diseases, maintains that Campath, a drug it is testing for multiple sclerosis, could generate peak annual sales of $3.5 billion. It aims to strengthen that argument at an investor meeting in New York on Monday.

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(Reuters) - Prosecutors in New York are set to file civil fraud charges against accounting firm Ernst & Young LLC over the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. The suit, led by Andrew Cuomo, could come as early as this week and may seek to impose fines and other penalties, the paper said. No one at Ernst & Young was available for comment outside regular U.S. business hours. Andrew Cuomo's office could not be reached for comment.

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(Reuters) - Australian wealth manager Perpetual (PPT.AX) has called off talks with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR.N) over a $1.7 billion takeover saying the approach undervalued the company, knocking its shares down by nearly 15 percent. KKR made an indicative bid of A$38 to A$40 per Perpetual share in October, eyeing a slice of the $1.2 trillion Australian wealth management sector. It was only willing to raise that slightly after looking at limited data, sources said earlier this month.

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