Morgan Stanley board lifts CEO Gorman's pay to $35 million

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman will get a 6% raise in annual pay, bringing his total compensation for 2021 to $35 million, the bank said on Friday.

Gorman's total compensation will include an annual base salary of $1.5 million, a cash bonus of $8.38 million, a deferred equity award of $5.03 million and a performance-based equity award of $20.1 million, according to a regulatory filing.

On Thursday, the board of JPMorgan Chase & Co gave a 9.5% raise to CEO Jamie Dimon, bringing his total compensation for 2021 to $34.5 million.

Since taking over a decade ago, the 63-year-old CEO has transformed Morgan Stanley from a Wall Street firm focused on a money-losing trading businesses into a more balanced bank. He was the driving force behind Morgan Stanley's decision to acquire brokerage firm and investment adviser Smith Barney that helped make wealth management the cornerstone of his plan to stabilize revenue.

Morgan Stanley directors based the pay decision on Gorman's individual performance and the bank's record earnings in 2021, it said.

Under Gorman, Morgan Stanley reported a net income of $15 billion in 2021, compared with $11 billion a year earlier and a return on tangible common equity of 19.8% compared with 15.2% last year