The proposal is part of a broad set of regulations on executive compensation expected to be announced by the administration as early as this week. Some of the rules are required by legislation enacted in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and they would apply only to companies that received taxpayer money.

Others, which are being described as broad principles, would set standards that the government would like the entire financial industry to observe as banks and other companies compensate their highest-paid executives, though it is not clear how stringent regulators will make them…

In a sign of how eager corporations are to escape government diktats on pay, at least nine of the nation’s biggest banks have asked to repay bailout money. The administration is expected to start granting approvals as early as Tuesday, allowing banks to leave the bailout program far earlier than many had envisioned. The early approvals are a sign that regulators and the banking industry believe that the worst of the crisis may have passed, even though the economy remains fragile.