“Last year was not a big year for raises in America. Collectively, Americans ended the year seeing their compensation rise just 2 percent.
“But bank executives are different from you and me. Case in point: Bank of America chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan. On Friday in filing, the bank said it handed Moynihan a 23 percent raise, bringing his 2015 pay to $16 million at a time when antipathy to Wall Street has become a central theme of the U.S. presidential election.”
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“Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, a nonprofit financial reform group, told HuffPost there really isn’t any good reason for the decision. “With its stock dropping, trading below book, recently paying out [$16.6] billion, Bank of America should not be shelling out lavish pay to an undeserving CEO,” Kelleher said. Arguing the bank likely would be better managed, more stable and more profitable if it broke itself into smaller parts, he said the board’s decision on Moynihan’s pay was a slap in shareholders’ faces. Kelleher said Moynihan’s pay was an indication that “these too-big-to-fail banking conglomerates are little more than vehicles to enrich the senior executives.”
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Read the full Huffington Post piece by Ben Walsh here.
