Bank CEO pay up 22 pct; Dimon still amid best paid

NEW YORK (AP) -- Top bankers keep getting bigger paydays.

The median pay for bank CEOs jumped 22 percent in 2012, according to a report by SNL Financial released first to The Associated Press. That came on top of a 10 percent increase in 2011 and a 4 percent increase in 2010.

John Stumpf of Wells Fargo was the industry's best-paid CEO, according to calculations by SNL, a business and financial analysis firm. Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co., who took a pay cut because of the bank's embarrassing trading loss last year, still came in at No. 3.

The median bank CEO pay amounted to about $552 million, up from $452 million in 2011, and included salary, bonus, perks, the potential value of stock and option awards and other elements.

There were big disparities, however, between banks of different sizes. CEOs at the biggest banks got their pay cut overall, while CEOs at smaller banks got pay increases.

Median pay at the biggest banks, with assets of more than $500 billion, was around $15.5 billion, which was down 10 percent.

Median pay at the smallest banks, with assets of less than $1 billion, was around $330,000, up about 9 percent.

By SNL calculations, Wells Fargo & Co.'s Stumpf earned $22.9 million for 2012. The biggest chunk came from stock awards that could eventually be worth $12.5 million, though that value could vary dramatically depending on how the bank performs.

Behind Stumpf were Richard Fairbank of Capital One Financial Corp. with $22.6 million, JPMorgan's Dimon with $18.7 million, Richard Davis of U.S. Bancorp with $18.2 million, and Joseph Hooley of State Street Corp. with $15.6 million.

SNL's calculations vary slightly from those by Equilar used in the yearly pay survey by The Associated Press. SNL, for example, includes change in pension value.

Dimon's pay dropped almost 19 percent over the year, according to SNL calculations, though the bank's board calculates differently and says it cut his pay in half. The board was rattled after a trading loss last year that eventually amounted to $6 billion, though it also said it wanted to reward Dimon for an otherwise strong performance.

Mike Corbat, the new Citigroup CEO, made $12.4 million for the year, according to the SNL report. Citi had to maneuver Corbat's pay with delicacy: Shareholders had rejected the planned pay package for then-CEO Vikram Pandit at last year's shareholder meeting, and Corbat took the job in October, after Pandit was forced out by a board unhappy with the bank's performance.

In a regulatory filing this year, Citi said that "the board of directors recognizes that the company's operating performance is still not where it needs to be. Both the board and management are committed to improving it."

Shareholders approved Corbat's pay at this year's meeting.