Bank of America grants CEO $6 million in restricted stock
Bank of America grants CEO $6 million in restricted stock (Global Markets) - Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) has granted Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan restricted stock worth nearly $6 million, although the company must meet performance goals for much of it to pay out, according to a securities filing on Friday.Stock Market Predictions
The stock grants are incentive pay doled out as part of the CEO's 2011 compensation package. For 2010, Moynihan received $9.1 million in performance-based stock.
In 2011, Bank of America earned $85 million in net income applicable to common shareholders, as the second largest U.S. bank sold off assets and took mortgage-related losses. It was the bank's first profitable year under Moynihan, who took charge in January 2010.
The bank's shares fell 58 percent last year as investors worried about whether the company had enough capital to absorb mortgage-related losses and meet new international standards. This year, the stock is up 44 percent, as the concerns eased. The shares closed Friday at $8.02, down 0.9 percent.
Moynihan did not receive a cash bonus for 2011 and did not receive an increase in his $950,000 base salary, a person familiar with the situation said on Friday. The stock grants disclosed on Friday equal all of the incentive-based pay he received for 2011, the person said.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank will disclose more information about executive pay in its proxy filing next month.
Moynihan received 532,705 performance-based shares, worth $4.1 million as of Wednesday's grant date. These shares vest only if the bank meets unspecified performance measures.
The shares cannot be paid out until March 1, 2015. If they are not earned by December 31, 2016, they expire.
Similar performance-based shares granted by the bank last year required the company to post a minimum return on assets - net income compared with total assets - of 0.5 percent on a rolling annual basis. In the first year for that grant, the bank did not meet the minimum hurdle.
Moynihan also received 228,302 stock units this week that will vest in 12 monthly portions and be paid out in cash, based on the company's stock price, starting in March. As of Wednesday's grant date, they were worth about $1.8 million. He did not receive this type of stock for 2010.
Seven other Bank of America executives also received various stock grants this week, according to securities filings on Friday. Co-chief operating officer Tom Montag, a former Merrill Lynch executive who runs capital markets and investment banking operations, received the largest performance-based stock grant, worth about $7.1 million. That was down from a $14.3 million grant for 2010.
Net income in Montag's global banking and markets unit fell by more than half to $3 billion in 2011 from $6.3 billion in 2010, as investors and corporations pulled back amid uncertainty over the European debt crisis.
Some senior executives who report to Moynihan received cash bonuses for 2011, the person familiar with the situation said. Performance-based stock grants, however, made up the largest portion of their incentive pay, the person said.
In January, Bank of America said it would issue as much as $1 billion in stock to certain employees in lieu of a portion of their cash bonuses. Unlike restricted stock grants, however, the shares would be immediately tradable. Bonuses were paid out to employees this week.
(Reporting By Rick Rothacker; editing by Andre Grenon)