It’s annual meeting and proxy time, that season when public companies are forced to disclose salaries of their five highest paid executives.
We’ll leave the grousing about excessive CEO pay to Bernie Sanders and others. We just wondered how CEOs of the larger North Carolina-based publicly traded banks compared with the big cats of state banking, Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan and Wells Fargo’s John Stumpf. Neither lives here, but maybe some day they will see the light and join their more than 40,000 associates in the state.
Running two of the giant four companies that dominate U.S. banking is a headache a minute, if not a second. It’s certainly a lot tougher than running a community or regional bank. And Moynihan and Stumpf are super-smart and decent guys, as anyone who has met them can attest.
But having interviewed a lot of the other guys on this list, it’s unclear why the gap in pay is so wide. Most would at least hold their own with the two big-bank CEOs, given support from legions of other top-notch executives at BofA and Wells.
Worth noting: Bank of America’s market cap declined 70% in the past decade, while Wells Fargo’s gained 48%. Investors did better in the S&P 500 Index, which climbed 58%.
Here’s a listing of the average annual compensation for the past two years for several CEOs, which gives a bit more perspective than one year.
John Stumpf, Wells Fargo, $20.3 million
Brian Moynihan, Bank of America, $14.6 million
Kelly King, BB&T, $12.9 million
Rick Callicutt, BNC Bancorp, $2.8 million *
Frank Holding, First Citizens, $1.8 million
Gene Taylor, Capital Bank, $1.4 million *
Scott Custer, Yadkin Financial, $984,000
Richard Moore, First Bancorp, $913,000
Dana Stonestreet, HomeTrust Bancshares $882,000
Jim Cherry, Park Sterling, $877,000
Chip Mahan, Live Oak Bank, $871,000
*Callicutt’s 2014 pay included a $3.2 million stock bonus. Otherwise, his average pay would be $1.1 million
*Taylor’s compensation is for 2013-14; 2015 proxy has not been filed.
