During the pandemic’s first year, CEO compensation at large and regional banks
While the full data for 2021 is not yet available, early returns indicate that chief executives got bigger pay bumps in a year that featured less upheaval and uncertainty than the previous one.
Data on pay last year for the CEOs of 18 large and regional banks shows that they all received a boost in total direct compensation, according to an analysis by Compensation Advisory Partners, a consulting firm. The increases ranged from 4.8% to 100%.
Most of the pay hikes were the result of both larger annual cash bonus payments and increases in long-term incentive awards, according to a review of the banks’ most recent proxy statements.
Total direct compensation includes not only an individual CEO’s base salary for a specific calendar year, but also bonus payments and other rewards that may be paid out after the year concludes. Therefore, the compensation numbers below may differ materially from the summary compensation figures that are provided in the banks’ proxy statements.
Using the data compiled by Compensation Advisory Partners, American Banker identified 10 chief executives who received relatively large year-over-year percentage increases.
Two of the nation’s highest-paid bank CEOs — JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and Citigroup’s Jane Fraser — are not on the list. Dimon’s pay package totaled $34.5 million for 2021, but his year-over-year increase was 9.5%, less than some of his counterparts at smaller banks. Fraser was not included because she did not take over as CEO until Feb. 26, 2021.
The CEOs are listed in ascending order based on the size of their pay increase for 2021.
