Citi, Bank of America Managers Averaged $18 Million Pay in 2008

By Bradley Keoun

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. paid top executives an average of $18.2 million each last year as the banks accepted $90 billion of bailout funds, records from Treasury Department paymaster Kenneth Feinberg show.

Citigroup paid $390.2 million to 21 people, an average of $18.6 million each, the records released Oct. 22 show. Bank of America paid $227.8 million to 13 executives, or $17.5 million apiece, according to Feinberg, who didn’t name them. The review excluded top-paid employees from 2008 who have since left.

Average pay for managers at the two banks was almost double that of the other five bailed-out companies reviewed by Feinberg. He ordered 2009 pay cuts averaging more than 50 percent for 136 executives at the seven firms after President Barack Obama said “it does offend our values” when company executives “pay themselves huge bonuses even as they continue to rely on taxpayer assistance.”

Overall, the employees whose pay was reviewed by Feinberg will get $339.7 million this year, or an average of $2.5 million. The totals for 2008 and 2009 were derived using figures Feinberg provided on the dollar amount and percentage decline between the two years.

Citigroup spokesman Stephen Cohen and Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri declined to comment.

Feinberg cut the Citigroup executives’ pay by $272 million, or 70 percent, from last year. They’ll still get $118.4 million this year, or an average of $5.6 million each. Most of the pay is in the form of restricted stock, complying with a Feinberg requirement that the companies encourage executives to focus on long-term performance.

Pandit’s $1 Pay

Citigroup’s 2009 total includes $1 for Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, 52, who in January volunteered to slash his pay after getting $10.8 million in 2008.

Feinberg stipulated “$0” in pay for Andrew Hall, the former head of Citigroup’s energy-trading unit, who was paid about $100 million in 2008. Citigroup agreed earlier this month to sell the unit, Phibro LLC, to Occidental Petroleum Corp., which will foot Hall’s 2009 tab.

Citigroup sought aid from the Treasury Department last year as it posted a record net loss of $27.7 billion.

Citigroup previously had only disclosed the 2008 pay for Pandit, former Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden and Citi’s three other highest-paid officers, former Asia head Ajay Banga, trading chief James Forese and Vice Chairman Stephen Volk. The five of them made a combined $56 million, or an average of $11.2 million each.

Bank of America

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America will pay the 13 top executives a total of $78.6 million in 2009, according to Feinberg. While the total is down by 66 percent from last year, the executives will still get an average of about $6 million each.

CEO Kenneth Lewis, 62, who plans to step down at the end of the year, is working for free this year.

He still stands to collect pension benefits that earlier this year were valued at $53.2 million, David Schmidt, senior consultant at James F. Reda & Associates, a New York compensation consulting firm, said Oct. 1. Lewis also has accumulated common shares worth about $57 million, deferred compensation of about $10 million and restricted stock of about $5 million, Schmidt said.

The other five companies reviewed by Feinberg were GMAC LLC, American International Group Inc., General Motors Corp, Chrysler Group and Chrysler Financial.

The 22 GMAC executives covered by Feinberg’s review will get an average $3.17 million in 2009 pay, while AIG’s 13 top executives will average $2.42 million. The average was $1.1 million at General Motors, $507,424 at Chrysler Group and $310,506 at Chrysler Financial.

The highest approved pay among all the covered executives was $10.5 million for Robert Benmosche, the CEO of AIG, whose bailout totals $182 billion.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bradley Keoun in New York at bkeoun@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 24, 2009 00:00 EDT