Citi, Bank of America managers averaged $18 mn pay in 2008

Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp paid top executives an average of $18.2 million each last year as the banks accepted $90 billion of bailout funds, records from Treasury Department paymaster Kenneth Feinberg show. Citigroup paid $390.2 million to 21 people, an average of $18.6 million each, the records released on October 22 show.

Bank of America paid $227.8 million to 13 executives, or $17.5 million apiece, according to Feinberg, who didn’t name them. The review excluded top-paid employees from 2008 who have since left.

Average pay for managers at the two banks was almost double that of the other five bailed-out companies reviewed by Feinberg. He ordered 2009 pay cuts averaging more than 50 per cent for 136 executives at the seven firms after President Barack Obama said “it does offend our values” when company executives “pay themselves huge bonuses even as they continue to rely on taxpayer assistance.”

Overall, the employees whose pay was reviewed by Feinberg will get $339.7 million this year, or an average of $2.5 million. The totals for 2008 and 2009 were derived using figures Feinberg provided on the dollar amount and percentage decline between the two years.

Citigroup spokesman Stephen Cohen and Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri declined to comment. Feinberg cut the Citigroup executives’ pay by $272 million, or 70 per cent, from last year. They’ll still get $118.4 million this year, or an average of $5.6 million each. Most of the pay is in the form of restricted stock, complying with a Feinberg requirement that the companies encourage executives to focus on long-term performance.

Citigroup’s 2009 total includes $1 for Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, 52, who in January volunteered to slash his pay after getting $10.8 million in 2008. Feinberg stipulated “$0” in pay for Andrew Hall, the former head of Citigroup’s energy-trading unit, who was paid about $100 million in 2008.