Citigroup Slashes CEO Salary by 21% to $ 19 Million

REUTERS: Citigroup Inc said late Friday that outgoing CEO Mike Corbat’s compensation for 2020 would be $ 19 million, a 21 percent decrease from 2019, according to a regulatory filing.

Company directors reduced Corbat’s incentive pay for its failure to efficiently address risks and control concerns from regulators, the bank said in a statement.

In October, the bank agreed to pay a $ 400 million fine and draft a comprehensive remediation plan after US regulators identified “several long-standing deficiencies” and operational lapses following a “mistake” that caused the bank to distribute for mistake nearly a billion dollars of their own funds.

Shortly after, the bank announced that Corbat would retire earlier than expected and increase investment in its operating systems by $ 1 billion.

Incoming CEO Jane Fraser has highlighted improving risk and control systems as a priority.

Additionally, board members considered the bank’s operational performance in 2019, market payment levels for the CEO position at peer institutions, and Corbat’s leadership when deciding their compensation, according to the document.

The total is made up of US $ 1.5 million in base salary and an incentive of US $ 17.5 million.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, banks showed restraint in executive compensation to reflect the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bank of America Corp cut CEO Brian Moynihan’s salary by more than 7%, and Wells Fargo & Co CEO Charlie Scharf’s salary fell 12% in 2020. JPMorgan Chase & Co kept CEO Jamie’s annual salary Dimon unchanged.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc CEO David Solomon’s pay fell 36%, reflecting the bank’s role in Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal.

Morgan Stanley stood out among the top 6 American bankers in salary increases. CEO James Gorman saw his salary increase 20 percent.

(Reporting by Imani Moise; Editing by Leslie Adler, David Gregorio, and Sonya Hepinstall)