BofA cuts CEO pay following 2023 profit decline

Bank reduces Brian Moynihan’s total compensation after its shares performed the worst among its biggest rivals.

Brian Moynihan’s total compensation as chief executive of Bank of America Corp. declined 3% to $29 million for 2023, a year in which the bank’s profit fell and its shares performed the worst among its biggest rivals.

The board granted Moynihan $1.5 million in salary and $27.5 million in stock-based incentive awards, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender said Friday in a filing. A year ago, Moynihan’s compensation was cut 6.3% to $30 million after earnings tumbled and the shares sank.

Moynihan’s pay package follows a year of turmoil at several smaller lenders after rising interest rates eroded the value of their debt investments. The climb in rates also became a drag for Bank of America, which had piled into long-dated Treasuries and mortgage bonds in years when rates were lower. Such holdings — while not an existential threat to the lender — weighed on its earnings profit.

In determining Moynihan’s pay, the bank said it acknowledged the firm’s “continued success in 2023 and Mr. Moynihan’s leadership under this operating model particularly in this period of considerable economic uncertainty.”

Compensation across Wall Street has been in sharp focus amid a global slump in dealmaking that prompted many lenders to cut jobs. Bank of America is letting employees go through attrition, trimming headcount by 3,838 over the course of the year to end 2023 with 212,985 employees. Net income in 2023 fell to $26.5 billion from $27.5 billion a year earlier.

The bank’s shares rose 1.7% in 2023. That compares with a 27% surge at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a 14% gain for Citigroup Inc.

Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman, in his final year as CEO, got a 17% pay bump to $37 million for 2023. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Jamie Dimon’s pay 4.3% to $36 million for a year in which the bank notched the highest profit in the history of American banking. Charlie Scharf, CEO at Wells Fargo & Co., got an 18% bump to $29 million.

Moynihan, one of the longest-serving heads of a giant US bank, has signaled his interest in staying on for years to come. The 64-year-old CEO steered the lender through the pandemic after taking the helm 14 years ago in the wake of the global financial crisis.