Country club dues, gym memberships and personal assistants. Home security systems, chauffeur service and parking. And, of course, all those private jets to ensure the comfort and safety of the boss.
Top executives at banks enjoy all sorts of shiny perquisites. Yet despite being propped up by taxpayer bailout money, many banks are not yet ready to give them up.
Like bonuses, these extravagances are likely to come under greater scrutiny. Indeed, in announcing a salary cap on Wednesday for some institutions receiving government financial aid, President Obama also called for greater corporate review of “excessive or luxury items” for executives.
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The perks are widespread. Across the industry, banks and their boards have been spending handsomely on supplemental benefits to augment salaries and burnish their corporate image, according to an analysis prepared for The New York Times by the executive compensation firm Equilar. Pay experts, by contrast, say many technology and pharmaceutical companies have scaled back on perks over the last few years.
“The party may be over but there is still a lot of cleaning up to do,” said Paul Hodgson, a senior research analyst at the Corporate Library, a governance and shareholder advisory group. “Particularly in this climate, change is very seriously needed.”
Before the financial crisis drove banks to seek taxpayer aid, lofty earnings allowed many to justify lavish expenses for executives. Boards often found business reasons to pay for extras like club dues and chauffeur-driven cars, which faced less scrutiny than salary and bonus figures.
The Equilar analysis covers 2008 proxy statements, which reflect the 2007 fiscal year, for banks now relying on the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Of 200 of the largest publicly traded banks that have received taxpayer money, about 61 percent, or 121 banks, paid an average of $10,835 in country club dues for their chief executive in 2007.
Nearly three-quarters, or 147 banks, spent an average of $20,668 in car and parking expenses. Corporate jets, now one of the biggest targets of Washington’s ire, were financed by 36 banks, or 18 percent of those now receiving taxpayer funds. More often than not, the banks let their leaders use the corporate jet for personal travel, at an average cost of $102,216. And regardless of size, many banks said they were “required” for the safety of the chief executive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/business/05perks.html?_r=1&dlbk
My heart just goes out to those special talents who are feeling the squeeze of only being about to make half a million a year if they take the government cheese. Fuck these assholes.
