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Bailed-Out Banks Boost CEO Perks

From private jets to bodyguards, they just keep taking

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 20, 2009 6:32 AM CDT

(Newser) – The CEOs of bailed-out banks and financial companies saw their perks and benefits—ranging from private jet use and country club membership to free parking and bodyguards—rise even at the height of the crisis last year. On average, the CEOs of the 29 biggest companies that received federal money got $380,000 worth of perks in 2008, and for half of them, that was an increase over the year before. Meanwhile, non-financial CEOs had their perks cut by 7%.

At CIT, the troubled lender that fired 22% of its staff last year, the CEO gets more than $100,000 a year just for corporate jet travel. As a fraction of overall compensation, the perks are small change—but shareholders are growing angrier that they're paying for lavish lifestyles that seem to have little effect on the bottom line. "You would have thought that this would be the moment when everyone said, 'OK, the perks have got to stop—at least while we're indebted to the government,'" said one researcher. "But that didn't happen."

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

Jeffrey Peek, Chairman and CEO of CIT Group Inc., received about $100,000 for private jet travel in 2008. In the same year 22% of employees were fired. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

A Gulfstream G150 and a G450 jet are displayed at the Asian Aerospace International Expo in Hong Kong Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

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The notion that some of these folks can't even leave a nickel on the floor, that they want to take every last dime and put it on the company card really rubs people the wrong way. And it points to a lack of independence at the board. - Daniel Pedrotty of the AFL-CIO

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Bailed-Out Banks Boost CEO Perks