Toronto-Dominion Bank slashed last year's pay for its top U.S. executive, Leo Salom, in the wake of its historic
Salom, who has led Toronto-Dominion's U.S. division since 2022, saw his variable pay decline 35% in 2024, the bank said in its annual proxy filing Tuesday. His total compensation for the year was $3.5 million, down from $4.6 million a year earlier.
But the board's human resources committee also underlined Salom's importance to the bank's recovery, noting that he's expected to play a key role in the "remediation" of its U.S. anti-money-laundering compliance program.
The committee approved a one-time restricted share unit award of $2 million for Salom to be granted in 2025, with vesting of the award "subject to meeting AML remediation conditions and milestones."
The decision to cut Salom's bonus pay last year was in line with a broader move at the bank to cut variable compensation by 30 million Canadian dollars ($20.7 million) in total for 41 executives. Toronto-Dominion disclosed that move in January when it also said it would accelerate new Chief Executive Officer
The bank said at the time that it awarded zero bonus pay to its now former CEO, Bharat Masrani, who took home CA$1.61 million last year, down from CA$13.34 million in 2023. Masrani will remain available to the bank in an advisory capacity until the end of July and will receive a fee of CA$500,000 a month.
"Executive compensation was adjusted to reflect the seriousness of the AML failures, the associated costs to the bank, and the limitations imposed on the U.S. retail business," the bank's board said in the proxy circular, referencing the $3.1 billion in fines Toronto-Dominion agreed to pay after settling with U.S. authorities in October plus hundreds of millions of dollars in other costs and
Twenty-two individuals have left the bank as a result of "accountability reviews," Toronto-Dominion said in the filing.
