Bonus Watch: JPMorgan Chase CEOs

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is obviously not going anywhere, his burgeoning DJ career notwithstanding. He’s reached the pinnacle of his industry and knows from his predecessor that a quiet retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Still, in their infinite wisdom, the people nominally charged with representing Goldman Sachs’ owners and protecting their money saw it fit to grant Solomon $50 million anyway, to set any non-existent itchy feet at ease.

This did not sit at all well with the folks at Glass Lewis, who reasonably enough wondered why, exactly, the board was handing over $50 million of shareholder’s capital to hold onto a guy who is transparently not going anywhere. (Everyone’s a critic.) Those shareholders, however, were a bit less peeved about this transparent waste of their money, with 82% of them giving it a non-binding thumb’s up.

JPMorgan Chase’s board, too, saw fit to hand its leader, Jamie Dimon, a totally unnecessary $50 million retention bonus. And Glass Lewis didn’t think that made any sense either. And in this case, a bank’s shareholders are rather inclined to agree.

Just 31% of investors participating in the New York-based bank’s annual shareholder meeting supported the $52.6 million award that was part of Dimon’s 2021 compensation package.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Jamie won’t be getting those 1.5 million options. It just means the board promises never to do it again.

“The special award was extremely rare — the first in more than a decade for Mr. Dimon — and it reflected exemplary leadership and additional incentive for a successful leadership transition,” [JPMorgan spokesman Joe] Evangelisti said./While the results of the so-called “say on pay” vote are nonbinding, JPMorgan’s board said it takes investor feedback “seriously” and intended Dimon’s bonus to be a one-time event, he added.

Jamie Dimon is 66 years old and will be 70 by the time he can exercise those options—by which point he’ll have led JPMorgan for 21 years. And literally the only reason he’d actually leave before then—his election to the presidency—is also the only reason he’s allowed to leave and still keep the options. Obviously, the retention bonus was always going to be a one-time event. It’s just that that’s probably one time too often.

JPMorgan investors hand Jamie Dimon a rare rebuke with disapproval of $52.6 million bonus [CNBC]