Labour union asks govt not to pay pension to BofA CEO
Press Trust of India / New York Oct 09, 2009, 14:10 IST
An American labour lobby has asked the government not to provide retirement package to the outgoing Bank of America chief executive Kenneth D Lewis.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) said in a letter to the Obama administration's 'pay czar' Kenneth Feinberg that Ken Lewis and other executives at banks supported by taxpayer money should be prevented from receiving any retirement or severance package until the banks commit to stop foreclosures.
Describing Lewis as one of the "chief architects of the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression", the letter said he would be leaving with $126 million, including a $53.3 million pension.
"Taxpayers have already provided nearly $200 billion in bailouts and backstops to Bank of America. This enormous public investment entitles taxpayers to have a say in the bank's executive compensation practices," the letter said.
Last week, Lewis said he would be stepping down as chief executive of the bank with effect from December 31, 2009.
In April this year, shareholders had voted to oust Lewis as chairman of the company. He was severely criticised for troubles at BofA forcing it to seek two federal bailouts.
"Despite helping to drive us into one of the worst financial meltdowns in history, it's been revealed that BofA plans to send Ken Lewis out the door with a $53.3 million pension on top of the hundreds of millions he's already made during his failed tenure as CEO," the letter added.
Brocolli, yeah right, how could anyone suspect that execs at the top bank in the U.S. would have anything to do with current financial crisis?! Part of the banks responsibility is to decide whether a person can afford the loan. If bank's loan officers are incompetent or are following guidelines that are too loose, that is the banks fault. The money going to the CEO pockets is money that the bank owns. The bank screwed up, that money should be go toward helping make the wrong, right.
Pretty soon shareholders may have more power to call for salary caps if they think big execs are making too much. If it was up to me, I would create a specific tax just for big money execs who work in banks and other large financial institutions that legally rip off people and use that money to create jobs. I wonder how many billions of dollars that would pump back into the economy.
That's quite stupid to basically blame the economic failure on one bank CEO. It's not his fault that people agreed to loans they could not afford in the first place. What a retarded article.
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