Vikran Pandit stays at Citi with $1 annual salary

WASHINGTON - Banking giant Citigroup’s Indian-American Chief Executive Vikram Pandit will continue to work for an annual salary of $1 even as the group raised the annual base salary for two of its executives.

Pandit who in January voluntarily agreed to accept $1 per year until the bank returned to profitability, also didn’t receive stock awards, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

Chief Financial Officer, John Gerspach was bumped from $400,000 to $500,000, annually and its Co-Head of Global Markets, James Forese received a boost from $225,000 to $475,000. The bank said both increases were approved by administration’s compensation czar, in an Oct 22 letter to the Citi.

The two executives also received company stock, with $2.92 million going to Gerspach and $5.44 million awarded to Forese. Vice Chairman Stephen Volk also received $3.4 million, according to the filing.

The stock awards were also compliant with the government’s compensation guidelines for banks participating in the Troubled Asset Relief Programme, the New York-based bank said.

The awards, termed a “stock salary,” are restricted until 2011. A third could be sold then, another third in 2012 and the remaining third in 2013.

Citigroup, which received a $45 billion government bailout last year, has pledged to keep paying employees competitively. Treasury paymaster Kenneth Feinberg on Oct 22 approved a total of $118.4 million of payouts to 21 executives, or an average of $5.6 million each. They got $390.2 million, or $18.6 million each in the previous year.

Not included in Citigroup’s filing Tuesday were separate “long-term restricted stock” bonuses approved by Feinberg that will be made early next year based on 2009 performance.

Under that programme, Forese may get as much as $2.85 million extra, Gerspach may receive $1.67 million and Volk may get $1.95 million, documents released by Feinberg show. The bonus shares can’t be sold until Citigroup repays its bailout money.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)