Bank of America Corp. paid chief executive Brian Moynihan about $7.5 million in salary, stock and other compensation in 2011, up significantly from $1.2 million the year before, the bank said today.
That includes $6.1 million in stock awarded in 2011 as well as a $950,000 salary, unchanged from the year before. The CEO, who took over the Charlotte bank’s top job in 2010, did not receive a cash bonus for the third straight year, according to the proxy filing.
Last year’s highest-paid executive was co-chief operating officer Thomas Montag, the former Merrill Lynch executive who runs the Wall Street side of the bank. He earned nearly $14.3 million in salary, bonus, stock awards and other compensation, higher than the five other executives named in the filing.
Under Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines, the annual compensation totaled in the bank’s proxy counts stock that was awarded during the company’s fiscal year. But Bank of America typically makes stock awards at the beginning of each year for the previous year’s performance.
Moynihan, for instance, was awarded a stock grant worth about $5.9 million in February for his 2011 performance, though the ultimate payout will depend on how the company performs going forward. That was down from the year before, when he was awarded $9,050,000 in performance-contingent restricted stock shares.
In the proxy filing, the bank’s compensation committee said it determines executive pay based on how the bank, its lines of business and individual executives perform over the short- and long-term. The payouts include a mix of salary, benefits and incentives paid over time, with much of it dependent on meeting future performance goals.
The bank’s results were mixed last year. It posted a fourth-quarter profit of $1.6 billion for common shareholders as it continued to shed assets, streamline operations and rebuild core businesses in a slowly improving economy. That marked a turnaround from the same period in 2010, but questions remain about the lender’s profit potential going forward.
Bank of America’s compensation committee emphasized the improved financial results and continued progress cutting costs and addressing legacy mortgage issues.
“During 2011, our senior management team strengthened the solid foundation of our company with a focus on long-term sustainable growth,” the filing said
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