Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.
The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages.
Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.
The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines.
The AP compiled total compensation based on annual reports that the banks file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 116 banks have so far received $188 billion in taxpayer help. Among the findings:
*The average paid to each of the banks’ top executives was $2.6 million in salary, bonuses and benefits.
*Lloyd Blankfein, president and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, took home nearly $54 million in compensation last year. The company’s top five executives received a total of $242 million.
*Even where banks cut back on pay, some executives were left with seven- or eight-figure compensation that most people can only dream about. Richard D. Fairbank, the chairman of Capital One Financial Corp., took a $1 million hit in compensation after his company had a disappointing year, but still got $17 million in stock options. The McLean, Va.-based company received $3.56 billion in bailout money on Nov. 14.
*John A. Thain, chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch, topped all corporate bank bosses with $83 million in earnings last year. Thain, a former chief operating officer for Goldman Sachs, took the reins of the company in December 2007, avoiding the blame for a year in which Merrill lost $7.8 billion. Since he began work late in the year, he earned $57,692 in salary, a $15 million signing bonus and an additional $68 million in stock options.
Banks that got bailout funds also paid out millions for home security systems, private chauffeured cars, and club dues. Some banks even paid for financial advisers. Wells Fargo of San Francisco, which took $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money, gave its top executives up to $20,000 each to pay personal financial planners.
At Bank of New York Mellon Corp., chief executive Robert P. Kelly’s stipend for financial planning services came to $66,748, on top of his $975,000 salary and $7.5 million bonus. His car and driver cost $178,879. Kelly also received $846,000 in relocation expenses, including help selling his home in Pittsburgh and purchasing one in Manhattan, the company said.
(LINK to Complete AP Article)
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10 Responses
I’d be happy if I received $ 5000 bonus.We all work very hard and they don’t. No wonder Madoff figured he could do what he did.
The “establishment” Democrats and the “establishment” Republicans (all Ivy Leaguers,
Wall Street and mass media connected, etc.), take care of their own. Diversity means having Ivy League graduates working for Street, but of different colors (white Ivy, black Ivy, Jewish Ivy, Hindu Ivy).
There are dissidents in both parties, but at the extremes of each, so they won’t get together. The “socialist” oriented left is outraged, and the “old fashioned” conservatives(think Sarah Palen, or McCain when he is in a maverick mood), but it is unlikely that these groups, who are totally different politically, will get together, even though public opinion is outraged.
SICK! just SICK!
This is the REAL SCANDAL. Bernie Madoff is the Jew who these crooks selected as the Sacrificial Lamb to divert attention from the TRILLIONS THAT THEY STOLE from investors.
They will get away scot=-free, while Madoff takes the heat for the relatively-paltry sum of 50 billion, which he was able to steal only with the collusion of these bamkers, the Government officials he bribed, and the Wall street foirms who worked with him.
To flatbusher (no. 6):
The banks and FMAC AND FMAE mortgage companies made trillions of dollars in ridiculous “loans” to people who, obviously, could never pay.
They knew they were stealing people’s savings, but they didn’t care, so long as this thievery served their political and financial hidden agendas.
These crooks are now being given “golden parachutes” and top political jobs in the new Obama administration, while Madoff takes all the heat.
#3 Just as heimish like to deal with other heimish, Ivy likes to deal with Ivy. At last they can spell
THE AMOUNT THEY GOT PAID/BONUSES IS VERY LITTLE COMPARED TO THE AMOUNT OF $$ THEY BROUGHT FOR THE COMPANY, MAYBE IT NOT SO MUCH AFTER ALL
We need a govenment investigation. A heist was pulled on the USA by those running it. People are losing homes. People have no health care. Executives are benefitting from our money because of the incredible way they made a fortune and the well ran dry??? What is this??
to veryinteresting and flatbusher:
Maybe this will help you undersdtand:
The government right now is using the same tactic to convince you that it is saving you from the recession. The whole scheme partakes of the same sense of denying reality that characterized Madoff’s scheme. And I’m not just talking about Social Security, which is almost an exact replica of the Ponzi version, except that at least Charles Ponzi didn’t force people to give him money.
I’m speaking of something broader. The entire financial system that is propped up by the Treasury and the Fed is based on the same idea: that something out of nothing is possible.
So they will jail Madoff. Wall Street would flog him if it could. He is disgraced for all of history. But meanwhile, the likes of Bush, Bernanke, Paulson, Obama, and all the rest are still riding high, even though their scheme is far larger and more egregious.
Most of us like to believe that we wouldn’t have been tricked by Madoff. But are you being tricked by the elites who claim that they can conjure up a trillion dollars to stabilize our economy by clicking a few buttons on a computer screen? Most people are. Certainly the press seems to have bought it. Many people were outwitted by Madoff. Many more people are today being outwitted by the government and its central bank. And it will all end in disgrace and disaster, only on a far, far grander scale.
1) Why is this a shock?
2) How much of the bailout money do you think is going to people on the other side of the table, like Paulson and his ilk? Far more than 1.6 Billion. This report is nothing!
The private sector is motivated by greed (and any capitalist understands and accepts this) so the government is supposed to stay clear of involvement in the private sector (outside of regulating it).
Face it folks, politics is corrupt. That’s why any chochom votes against increasing governmental powers. Too bad it is only politicians who get to make the votes that count.