Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf’s pay more than doubles to $18.7 million in 2009

By Stevenson Jacobs, AP
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Wells Fargo CEO’s pay doubles to $18.7 million

NEW YORK — Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf’s compensation more than doubled to $18.7 million in 2009, a year that saw the bank report $8 billion in profit and repay government bailout money, according to an Associated Press analysis of regulatory filings.

Stumpf, 56, received a $5.6 million salary made up mostly of company stock and a separate $13 million performance-based stock bonus, Wells Fargo & Co. said in a preliminary filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Stumpf’s 2008 compensation totaled $9 million, 21 percent less than the previous year. His 2009 pay makes him among the nation’s highest-paid bank CEOs.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon received a $16 million in compensation for 2009, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein received $9 million.

Lawmakers and shareholders sharply criticized Wall Street pay after the biggest banks lost billions of dollars on bad mortgage bets, helped cause the recession and then had to be bailed out by the government.

Wells Fargo said last month that it will allow shareholders to cast a nonbinding vote on compensation for the bank’s top five executives. The vote will come at the bank’s annual meeting in April.

The “say on pay” issue has been debated in recent years, and provisions to require such nonbinding votes are included in several bills submitted to Congress regarding financial regulation.

Stumpf’s stock award would be forfeited if he leaves the San Francisco-based Wells Fargo for a competitor. The shares vest after three years if the nation’s fourth-largest bank meets certain performance goals. He received no cash bonus.

The lack of a 2009 cash bonus and the three-year vesting period are similar to a moves made by other banks. Goldman’s 30 high-ranking executives, for example, got no cash bonuses last year, instead receiving stock that cannot be sold for at least five years.

Stumpf’s compensation included $45,895 in perquisites, or “perks,” including financial planning, car service and home security.

The Associated Press calculations of total pay include executives’ salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don’t include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals that companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the SEC.

Wells Fargo issued new stock during the last quarter of 2009 as part of its repayment of government bailout money. The bank was one of the final large, national banks to pay back the $25 billion it received as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In 2009, Wells Fargo was able to more than offset continued loan losses and the charges tied to repaying TARP through growing fee-based revenue, such as mortgage banking and credit and debit card fees.

For the full year, Wells Fargo reported a profit of $7.99 billion after paying preferred dividends, or $1.75 per share. It earned $2.37 billion, or 70 cents per share, in 2008.

Wells Fargo shares rose 33 cents to $28.20 on Wednesday. During 2009 the stock fell about 8 percent to end at $26.99.

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