Bank of America Corp. is not giving its top executive a raise for 2011, unlike some rivals in the financial services industry. Over the past year, the nation’s largest bank by assets saw its stock fall 11 percent. While President and CEO Brian Moynihan didn’t receive a raise in his base salary or any cash-settled stock units, which are payable in cash based on the share price over the course of the year, he was granted $9.05 million in restricted stock units that are contingent on the bank meeting certain performance goals over the next five years. Moynihan’s base salary will remain at $950,000. The stock has changed hands between $10.91 and $19.86 in the past 52 weeks. Three other senior Bank of America executives are getting salary bumps of 6.25 percent, to $850,000 from $800,000, in addition to stock awards.

Questions:

1.   How should the company record the restricted stock units? How should they record the salaries?

2. What additional information do you need to know before writing a footnote disclosure about the restricted stock unit award?

3.  During the year, Goldman Sachs more than tripled the salary of CEO Lloyd Blankfein to $2 million, not including stock awards, and also granted raises to four other top executives. Citigroup Inc. gave its top executive, Vikram Pandit, a salary raise to $1.75 million, from just $1 the previous year.  Why do you suppose BoA has limited its salaries to less than $1 million? Discuss.

Source:

Baron, M. (2011). No Raise for Bank of America’s Moynihan, The Street.com, January 31. (Retrievable online at http://www.thestreet.com/story/10990807/1/no-raise-for-bank-of-americas-moynihan.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN)

Connelly, E. (2011). Bank of America CEO Moynihan Salary Flat for 2011. Huffingtonpost.com, January 31 (Retrievable online at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/bank-of-america-ceo-pay_n_816789.html)