Bank of America Corp. co-Chief Operating Officer Thomas K. Montag received a 21 percent raise to $14.5 million for 2012, topping his boss Brian T. Moynihan for the third straight year. Montag, 56, got a $5.46 million cash bonus for 2012, $8.19 million in restricted stock units and an $850,000 base salary, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender said today in a regulatory filing. That compares with the $12 million awarded to Moynihan, 53, giving the chief executive officer a raise of more than 70 percent from 2011. “This says to everybody that Brian is OK with Tom getting a superior compensation; Montag is doing a great job in a business that’s very tough right now,” said Jeanne Branthover, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search Ltd. in New York [Bloomberg, earlier]
Brian Moynihan
Brian T. Moynihan, who endured record losses and public thrashings while cleaning up Bank of America Corp.’s mortgage mess, said he wouldn’t mind being chief executive officer of the lender forever. “It’s the best job there is,” Moynihan said yesterday in an interview scheduled for public television’s “Charlie Rose” program. “While there have been times when you sit there and say, ‘Jeez, this is a lot of pounding,’ you always keep your eye on the purpose you’re here. And that’s to help people with their financial lives — if you really keep focused on that, I could do this the rest of my life.” [Bloomberg]
Dick Bové Is ThisClose To Gifting Brian Moynihan With A LivingSocial Deal For Public Speaking Courses
By Bess Levin
After one investor conference in June 2011, veteran bank analyst Richard Bove says he called the lender’s investor relations department to complain. “I told them I didn’t believe such an incredibly bad presentation could be made,” Bove says of Moynihan. “He doesn’t have the ability to speak off the cuff, and to let him is to destroy shareholder wealth.” Moynihan’s lack of eloquence is the main reason he’s underestimated, says Bill Miller, chairman of Legg Mason Capital Management Inc., whose funds own about 4 million Bank of America shares. Miller says the stock can double within three years. “There’s a tendency to impute much greater skill on the part of somebody like Jamie Dimon, who is very smooth, over someone like Brian,” Miller says. “People say, ‘Oh, he doesn’t speak well, and he stumbles over his words and he’s sweating.’” [Bloomberg]
Countrywide is both an albatross and a boon for Brian Moynihan. Sure, it’s the reason for all of Bank of America’s troubles, but it’s also really convenient to have such a reason.
This, however, is less convenient: Read more »
Dick Bové’s absence (and the Countrywide debacle and bailout disaster and Brian Moynihan’s not-always-rosy pronouncements) have really done a number of Bank of America’s image. And while Bové tried to make up for lost time yesterday*, it simply isn’t enough to avoid a massive new advertising campaign designed to convince people that BofA isn’t as bad as it seems. Read more »
Running Bank Of America Is Like Trying To Summit A Mountain Without So Much A Fucking Carabiner, Or Something, Says Brian Moynihan
By Bess Levin
“As we look left and right, we’re right with the other climbers, in terms of competitiveness and how we approach the market,” Moynihan told Bloomberg Television’s Erik Schatzker in an interview today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Rivals aren’t “working as hard as we are,” he said. “They have a CamelBak and a water, and we have a 250-pound backpack.” [Bloomberg]
Are You A Financial Services Company Stuffed To Gills With Toxic Assets And/Or On The Verge Of Bankruptcy? Don’t Hold Your Breath For Brian Moynihan’s Call
By Bess Levin
Time was, Bank of America loved buying companies. Bonus points if there was a not-so-subtle suggestion by the target’s CEO that BofA would one day be very sorry for doing so, or that they would’ve been better off picking up an asbestos manufacturer, or that they were looking at roughly $40 billion (and counting) in legal fees associated with fuck-ups that were to become Bank of America’s problem, or that they would have night terrors for the rest of their lives about signing those papers. As it’s been a while since BofA went shopping, some in the financial services industry have been wondering if we can expect any announcements re: big deals anytime soon or if Ken Lewis’s unsolicited suggestions (Groupon, Sino Forest, The Thirsty Beaver, and most recently: “a P&C insurer with outsized exposure to the Northeast”) are or have ever been under consideration. Read more »
Would’ve been quite the gag but no, he was serious, in case there was a question in anyone’s mind. Read more »
Remember Project New BAC, i.e. Bank of America’s plan to transform itself from Ken Lewis’s house of fun, where everyone went home happy but the concept of making money was less of a focus than keeping the good times coming, to an institution that did things like post profits? The bank has said previously that PNBAC “will result in $8 billion in annual savings by 2015—$5 billion from the first phase and $3 billion from a second phase” and while it stands by those figures and remains committed to cutting as many employees as it takes, some people would like them to be a bit snappier about it. Read more »
Bloomberg: Not One Bank CEO Can Fill Jamie Dimon’s Shoes, Especially Not That Guy From Australia Who Doesn’t Own An Iron
By Bess Levin
Earlier today, Bloomberg ran a lengthy piece about the latest crisis on Wall Street: a lack of Jamie Dimon. Specifically, a lack of Jamie Dimon telling meddlesome regulators, anti-industry populists, know-nothing Congressmen, and hypocrite bastard newspapers where they can go and what they can suck. True, it’s not as though he’s gone anywhere, and he’s still reminding people “it’s a free fucking country” but “juggling multiple investigations and a $5.8 billion trading loss on wrong-way bets on credit derivatives” has left his hands a little tied and, some believe, cost him his once untouchable “stature” in the industry.
And while one should never simply offer problems without solutions, Bloomberg isn’t gonna sugarcoat this one: when it comes to “any kind of credible statesmen” to step in for JD, Wall Street is shit out of luck and not just because no one besides Lloyd came close in sales of their respective Bankers At Work And Play pin-up calendars. Among current CEO’s, Lloyd Blankfein, Brian Moynihan and Vikram Pandit are deemed too busy “fixing their own firms or repairing their reputations,” while Wells Fargo chief John Stumpf, though respected among his peers, is ruled out due to geography (“Part of Jamie’s fitting into that role was his natural brashness as a Wall Streeter and New Yorker, and that is not John”).
But hey, what about that James Gorman guy? Runs Morgan Stanley, is based in New York, has been known to put a foot up an ass when necessary? Don’t even get Bloomberg started. Read more »
He’s got this. Read more »
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