I'll bet you wish you had a $eat:
"Directors’ pay on the rise for big-bank boards" by Susanne Craig | New York Times, April 01, 2013
NEW YORK — Wall Street pay, while lucrative, isn’t what it used to be — unless you are a board member.
Since the financial crisis, compensation for the directors of the biggest banks has continued to rise, even as the banks, facing difficult markets and regulatory pressures, rein in bonuses and pay.
Take Goldman Sachs, where the average annual compensation for a director — essentially a part-time job — was $488,709 in 2011, the last year for which data are available, up more than 50 percent from 2008, according to Equilar, a compensation data firm. Some of Goldman’s 13 directors make more than $500,000 because they have extra responsibilities.
And the numbers are likely to skyrocket for 2012, because the firm’s shares rose more than 35 percent last year and directors are paid in stock. Goldman Sachs is expected to release fresh pay data in coming weeks.
Its board is the best compensated of any big US bank’s and is the fifth-highest paid of any company in the country, according to Equilar.
Some of its rivals are not far behind. In 2011, the biggest banks paid their directors over $95,000 a year more, on average, than what other large corporations paid.
Goldman defends the board’s pay....
Easy to do when you are unscrupulous and incorrigible thieves.
More broadly, banks and compensation experts say, financial firms must now pay a premium to keep qualified directors.
You know, if it ain't enough I'll take the job. I'm tired of being told we have to retain talent as an excuse for looting.
After the financial crisis, some boards were criticized for being asleep at the wheel and not understanding the risks being taken. Recruiters say banks are redoubling efforts to recruit directors with more financial expertise.
Yet it is also a balancing act....
Some Wall Street insiders question the need to pay bank directors more than their counterparts at other big corporations....
Boards are just a way of doling out cash to those already wealthy.
Morgan Stanley’s director pay is the second-highest on Wall Street, an average of $351,080, roughly the same as in 2008 but much higher than the pay at bigger and more complicated rivals like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
Board pay at Morgan Stanley has drawn criticism from Daniel S. Loeb’s hedge fund, Third Point, which recently bought 7.8 million shares, or a 0.4 percent stake, in the firm. While praising Morgan Stanley and its management, Loeb wrote to investors how surprised he was about directors’ pay....
At Citigroup, directors make an average of $315,000 a year, according to Equilar, up 64 percent from 2008....
Of the five financial institutions to have reported director pay for 2012, JPMorgan is the biggest, but it gives its directors compensation, on average, worth $278,194 each.
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Crime Does Pay For Dimon
And the directors.
Only Bank of America, where directors are paid $275,000, pays less.
--more--"
I will try to get to the other banks this month, dear readers.
