Citigroup Paid Employees $13M for Scrapped Resort Trip

Firms paid more than they made: Cuomo

(NEWSER) - The financial crisis and government bailouts did little to change Wall Street’s executive compensation habits, New York's attorney general says. All nine banks given assistance by TARP paid out bonuses in 2008—well before any paid back government loans, according to a survey ordered by Andrew Cuomo. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase actually paid more in bonuses than the firms made for the year, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Compensation limits have prompted swift TARP repayment

(NEWSER) - A common complaint about the TARP bailouts was that by injecting capital and making the financial environment more friendly, the government wasn't doing enough to push the banks into real reform. Why wouldn't the banks simply live off TARP cash as long as they could? Yet those concerns were unfounded, writes Daniel Gross, because it turned out the government did have an effective motivator: limits on compensation. More»

Average payout will be five times median household income in US

(NEWSER) - Recession? What recession? Some Wall Street firms are not feeling any pain this year as record bonuses at just three of the top firms are likely to hit an eye-popping $30 billion. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, the three biggest banks to be bailed out by the feds, will dish out bonuses to 119,000 workers at an amount averaging $250,000 for each. More»

(NEWSER) - Citigroup will raise salaries for investment bankers and traders as much as 50% to offset a steep falloff in bonus pay and keep the company’s compensation package competitive, Bloomberg reports. Other employees, like those in the consumer banking section, will receive smaller raises. Citi, which took $45 billion in federal bailout funds, also plans to offer its employees stock options to keep them on. More»

Salary caps will be dropped, but bonus restrictions remain

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration has scrapped plans for salary caps at banks and other firms that receive government bailout money, reports the Wall Street Journal. But congressional limits on bonuses will remain in force, and the White House will still push for major changes to executive compensation. The double whammy of executive and legislative pay provisions had spooked Wall Street and pushed 10 banks to repay $68 billion in TARP money yesterday. More»