Citi chief Pandit rewarded with $14.8m for 2011
CITIGROUP chief executive Vikram Pandit finally got his payday. The third biggest US bank company paid Pandit $14.86m (£9.38m) in 2011, compared with a salary of $1 and no bonus in 2010, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Committee.
The 2011 payout included salary of $1.7m and cash supplemented by a cash bonus of $5.3m and options valued at $7.8m. In 2009, Pandit’s total pay package was $128,751.
Pandit’s 2011 compensation recognises his shepherding of Citigroup to profitability after the bank was bailed out by the government in 2008.
Citi, which had net income that rose six per cent in 2011 to $11.1bn, has had eight consecutive quarters of profitability, the bank’s compensation committee said in the company’s annual proxy statement.
While its profit rose six per cent from 2010, the bank’s shares last year plummeted 44 per cent.
“The committee awarded annual incentive compensation, in addition to salary, to Mr Pandit for the first time in four years in a manner commensurate with his responsibilities and the success of his implementation of Citi’s long term strategies,” the proxy statement said.
Citigroup is the first large U.S. financial company to report its top executives’ compensation as Wall Street slashes pay and imposes heavy layoffs.