Bank of America amends pay for top staff
Salaries for chief financial officer and mortgage head fixed at $500,000
Washington : Bank of America, the biggest US bank by assets, said Chief Financial Officer Joe L. Price and mortgage head Barbara Desoer will receive less in salary for 2009, citing a review by US paymaster Kenneth Feinberg.
Price and Desoer had their annual salaries set at $500,000 (Dh1.83 million), the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender said on Friday in a regulatory filing. The two executives also get "stock unit awards" in lieu of cash, valued at $5.25 million for Price and $3.95 million for Desoer, the filing said. The adjustments in 2009 base salary were retroactive to November 1, the filing said.
The bank's March 18 proxy statement said their 2008 salaries were $800,000. They also received stock and option awards, with total 2008 compensation for Price of $4.02 million, and $7.42 million for Desoer.
Responding to outrage stoked by bonuses at failing companies, the US Treasury Department named Feinberg in June to evaluate compensation at seven bailed-out firms. The 64-year-old Washington lawyer has already persuaded Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis to give up his salary and bonus for 2009. Lewis plans to retire on December 31.
The revised terms for Price, 48, and Desoer, 57, include restrictions on perquisites that would require them to return any 2009 amounts exceeding $25,000. Tax "gross-ups" tied to certain elements of their compensation are eliminated, the filing said. Gross-ups typically are payments to cover the cost of income taxes so that an executive receives the full value of benefits and perks.
Feinberg and Scott Silvestri, a spokesman at Bank of America, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Adjustments
$5.25m in stock unit awards in lieu of cash given to Price
$3.95m in stock unit awards in lieu of cash given to Desoer
