Dive Brief:
- Bank of America paid CEO Brian Moynihan $29 million for 2023 — a $1 million, or 3.3%, cut from 2022, the bank disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday.
- Moynihan stands as the only CEO from a top-six U.S. bank, so far this year, to have his compensation cut. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay jumped roughly 4% from 2022, to $36 million. Morgan Stanley increased Executive Chair James Gorman’s compensation to $37 million — a 17.5% bump — for his last year as CEO. And Wells Fargo gave CEO Charlie Scharf an 18.4% raise — to $29 million — for 2023. Goldman Sachs and Citi have yet to detail their CEOs’ pay packages for the year.
- Moynihan’s pay cut mirrors a 4% decrease in net income that Bank of America saw throughout 2023. But the bank, in its filing, took care to note that its profit would have increased 6% on the year if not for two fourth-quarter charges: the $2.1 billion special assessment fee it paid to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and a $1.6 billion charge it took over the closure of a Bloomberg index it used as a Libor alternative.
Dive Insight:
Moynihan’s compensation breaks down to a $1.5 million base salary and $27.5 million in restricted stock units. Half of those will be re-earned only if the bank meets specific performance standards between now and 2026; 30% will vest over the next year; and 20% will vest annually over the next four years.
Friday’s disclosure means Moynihan’s pay has been cut for two straight years — and three out of the last four. Bank of America trimmed the CEO’s compensation from $26.5 million to $24.5 million for 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then Moynihan saw a 30.6% raise in 2021, to $32 million. And Bank of America winnowed that to $30 million for 2022, when the bank saw a 14% drop in net income.
The bank, meanwhile, rolled off a list of accomplishments in its disclosure. Its book value per share jumped 9% in 2023 and it returned $12 billion to shareholders, it said. The bank saw $8 billion in loan growth and added more than 600,000 net new consumer checking accounts, it said. The bank also added $84 billion in wealth flows and added 40,000 net new relationships for investment clients in 2023. The bank also touted the seventh year of its effort to offer restricted stock to well over 90% of its employees, and trumpeted its move to raise its minimum wage to $23 per hour.
With $29 million for 2023, Moynihan’s compensation package matches Scharf’s at Wells Fargo — though Scharf would have been paid $30.3 million for last year had he not requested “negative discretion,” Wells disclosed last month.
