I drove home listening to a left-wing talk radio show that focused on the $1.8MM in bonuses that Hostess Brands is using to retain 19 executives during its wind down. They thought this was pure evil and unfair.  Hostess has hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, so this is at […]

[credit provider=”Dialog International” url=”http://www.dialoginternational.com/dialog_international/2008/09/the-weimar-econ.html”] In such a struggling industry, you might think any Biglaw bonuses would be cause for celebration.Especially if those bonuses match the industry standard.

[credit provider=”Ben King | armour Down” url=”http://armordown.blogspot.com/2012/05/take-break-before-you-are-dead-hooah.html”] When prominent Biglaw firm Weil Gotshal announced it wouldn’t pay out employee bonuses until January 2013, associates immediately accused the firm’s leadership of trying to screw them come tax season.A tax hike is expected to go into effect next year, meaning Americans should […]

Cravath, Swaine & Moore, one of the country’s most profitable law firms, just announced a pretty sweet 2012 bonus scale.

Recovery in the legal industry is so bad that some law firms are resorting to using short-term debt to stay operational through the end of this year.

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — Wall Street banks are deflating pay expectations to avoid a replay of last year when cutbacks on bonuses and increased deferrals surprised bankers and traders.

One of the most common justifications for hefty CEO compensation packages is that if the leaders of industry are not paid well, the so-called best and brightest will no longer flock to fill the corporate ranks, and will instead go elsewhere.

The New York State Comptroller’s report on the financial state of Wall Street is out, and that means a flood of industry data for all to see.

It’s hard to imagine, but declaring bankruptcy could earn executives more money as they continue working to unwind their firms’ affairs.

[credit provider=”Patrick Gage via Flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrickgage/5375260095/”] Executive pay is one of the most controversial and misunderstood topics in business.Shareholder votes against pay packages aren’t binding, but are a public relations nightmare.

[credit provider=”Flickr/WaltStoneburner” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltstoneburner/2598412775/”] Their former bosses might only rake in between $200,000 and $225,000, but former Supreme Court clerks are rolling in the dough when they leave public service for life in the private sector.Law clerks from the Supreme Court’s last term are being welcomed into BigLaw firms with signing […]

[credit provider=”lilszeto via flickr ” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/mszeto/3282517760/in/photostream”] In recent years, companies have had trouble retaining employees — especially the Gen Y workers who are more apt to move from one opportunity to the next. Now we know why.

[credit provider=”USDAgov | Flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/6893084545/”] Performance pay is intended to keep executive action in line with the desires of a company’s shareholders.  However, a new working paper from the Harvard Business School’s Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Julie Wulf contends that certain pay practices can actually lead to earnings manipulation and dishonesty.

[credit provider=”AP” url=”http://www.apimages.com/OneUp.aspx?st=k&kw=bank%20of%20america&showact=results&sort=relevance&intv=None&sh=10&kwstyle=and&adte=1316704137&pagez=60&cfasstyle=AND&rids=b4429985e4b94140a4e89527767cd0ab&dbm=PY2009&page=1&xslt=1&mediatype=Photo”] Bank of America Merrill Lynch first-year analysts can look forward to a nice paycheck at the end of August, even if it is lower than in the past.Sources with knowledge of compensation for the first year analyst class of 2011 said bonuses ranged from $25,000 to $60,000, […]

[credit provider=”Getty Images” url=”http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?contractUrl=2&language=en-US&family=editorial&p=dewey+and+leboeuf&assetType=image&subuid=7319317″] Now that the once-powerful law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf is bankrupt, we’re learning details on exactly how much its top managers earned as they steered the firm toward certain destruction.In its last year, Dewey paid its executive director Stephen DiCarmine and its chief financial officer Joel […]

Earlier today we found out that Deutsche Bank was cutting 1,900 jobs.

[credit provider=”Flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/2893924013/sizes/l/in/photostream/”] Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing has done something unusual among his CEO counterparts.Yuanqing distributed his $3 million bonus among the company’s 10,000 lower level workers. 

[credit provider=”World Economic Forum via flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/2893924013/in/photostream/”] It’s not uncommon that executives can sometimes make more money with their bonuses than they do their salaries.When the CEO of Lenovo (a top China-based PC maker), Yang Yuanqing, received an additional $3 million bonus as a result of the company’s impressive fiscal year earnings, […]

Earlier we posted this story, “Peter Schiff’s Brother, Who Said His $350K Salary Isn’t Enough, Just Bought A $1.23 Million Condo.”  

[credit provider=”Russia Today screengrab” url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Q99obH5Qc”] Andrew Schiff, who works for broker-dealer Euro Pacific Capital and is the brother of Peter Schiff (the firm’s founder), has finally had his dream of owning a bigger apartment with a dishwasher come true just months after complaining his $350,000 salary wasn’t enough for his New York lifestyle, […]

[credit provider=”Flickr/deltaMike” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/deltamike/1626425847/”] Times are still kind of tight for lawyers, but big dogs Quinn Emanuel, Sullivan & Cromwell and Cahill Gordon are actually paying out mid-year bonuses.The reactions are mixed at the firms, with associates at Quinn Emanuel — a major corporate litigation firm — complaining about the amount […]

[credit provider=”AP”] SAP is about to post one its best quarters ever. But that doesn’t mean employees will automatically get a bonus, co-CEOs Jim Hagemann Snabe and Bill McDermott warned employees yesterday.The execs told employees that “a continuation of the current spending levels could affect our bonus payout,” reports Bloomberg.

[credit provider=”CNN Money via JPMorgan Chase” url=”http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/fortune/1109/gallery.highest_paid_women.fortune/8.html”] JPMorgan reports earnings on Friday, and all attention will be paid to what, if any, new details there are from the London Whale losses reporter in the quarter.Monica Langley and Dan Fitzpatrick at WSJ have what sound like the definitive details.

A few days ago brokers at Merrill Lynch were saying a quiet thanks that public attention had turned to the bonuses at AIG, taking focus away from the bonuses that had been paid at their firm last December. “Their pain is our gain,” one Merrill vet told me. In the […]

Just days after Merrill and BofA shareholders confirmed a merger between the two banks, Merrill’s global wealth advisers are reportedly miffed that their U.S. bretheren are getting larger retention bonuses. As we said months ago when U.S. brokers were squawking about this, you should be thankful you’re getting any bonus.

Fears that a huge tax increase at the firms subject to the 90% bonus tax might shatter the performance of those banks were reflected in the performance of their stocks at the end of the week.

Brian Montopoli of CBS’s Econwatch says we shouldn’t be shedding any tears for Jake DeSantis, the AIG guy whose resignation letter ran in the New York Times today.

AIG just released a statement explaining that the two executives who resigned from its French bank will remain in their roles until an orderly transition to new senior managemers can be undertaken. That presumably means one that doesn’t involve French banking regulators appointing officers, triggering CDS defaults and hammering European […]

A partner at the law firm Cadwalader yesterday issued a very unique client memo titled “2 Ideas In One Memo.” Tongue placed firmly in cheek, attorney Steven Lofchie describes a tax reform that would make it possible to clawback excess compensation from anyone we don’t like.

Below is a letter purporting to be from en employee at AIG’s Financial Products business. It was titled “A View From Inside Banque AIG.” We haven’t been able to independently confirm that it is genuine but there is nothing in the letter to make us feel otherwise. It’s a great […]

BofA awarded a $15.2 million to its investment banking chief Tom Montag – that’s 68% more than his boss, CEO Brian Moynihan, Bloomberg reports.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink just got a nice pay bonus for work during 2010 — $12.8 million worth of stock to be exact.

[credit provider=”AP Photo”] JPMorgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon was grilled before the Senate Banking Committee in Washington, D.C. this morning over the $2 billion trading loss the bank revealed last month.Following his prepared testimony, Dimon faced questions from the committee members.  

[credit provider=”Daniel Goodman / Business Insider.com”] Not a lot of rewards beat cold, hard cash, and despite cash bonuses not being as common as they used to be a couple of years ago, workers still want cash in their bonus package. In fact, a Wall Street Journal FINS survey revealed that […]

[credit provider=”Flickr via shanes_stuff” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanes_stuff/5483381568/in/photostream/”] Banks have upped their signup bonus game to attract better customers, but this offer from Florida’s C1 Bank takes the cake. The bank is giving away one of four Mercedes Benz roadsters to new customers flush enough to open a $1 million five-year CD. 

[credit provider=”Wikimedia Commons” url=”http://www.flickr.com/people/[email protected]″] BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Eastman Kodak Co. is seeking permission to pay about 300 executives and other employees a total of $13.5 million in bonuses to persuade them to stay with the company as it reorganizes under bankruptcy protection.The Rochester-based photography company said the targeted employees have knowledge […]

[credit provider=”adactio” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/adactio/4542035184/”] Some cutting-edge companies are experimenting with a new bonus model, says Rachel Silverman atThe Wall Street Journal, in which your year-end windfall is decided not by your boss, but by those who perhaps know your work best: Your co-workers.In the case of San Francisco-based Coffee & Power, employees […]

[credit provider=”Wikimedia” url=”http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Corpoflondon.jpg”] When Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) boss Stephen Hester waived his £963,000 bonus in January this year, he wrote a candid letter to his staff revealing the motive behind his decision. Hester confessed to workers at the largely state-owned bank that press coverage “had been discomforting to […]

[credit provider=”Lisa Du, Business Insider with AP”] The COO, CFO and general counsel of MF Global are expected to receive performance-related payouts under a bankruptcy plan submitted by the failed investment fund’s trustee, the Wall Street Journal’s Aaron Lucchetti and Mike Spector report.The bonuses for Brian Abelow, Henri Steenkamp and […]

Last fall there was a widely reported study that forecast a 20-30% drop in Wall Street bonus compensation, potentially disrupting what has been a multi-year stable Manhattan housing market.

[credit provider=”Daniel Goodman / Business Insider”] Andrew Schiff, the director of marketing for brokerage Euro Pacific Capital, is the highlight of today’s Bloomberg story on how bankers are dealing with the after-effects of receiving lower bonuses.Despite not really even being a banker—he’s the director of marketing—Schiff doesn’t hesitate to complain […]

[credit provider=”Andrew Burton” url=”http://www.andrewburtonphoto.com/”] Total cash bonuses for Wall Street firms are expected to decline 14 per cent to $19.7 billion for 2011, according to a report from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Average cash bonuses declined 13 per cent to $121,150 in 2011. The average bonus declined slightly less […]

While those in the 99% tend to think of Wall Street types as omnipresent, greedy drains on the economy in that “vampire squid” way, a recent Bloomberg feature is shedding some light on the more human side of bankers.

[credit provider=”AP”] WILMINGTON, Delaware (AP) — A bankruptcy judge has approved close to $370,000 in bonuses for certain employees of Solyndra LLC, a solar panel manufacturer that received a half-billion dollar loan from the federal government before declaring bankruptcy.Solyndra, based in Fremont, California, wanted to award bonuses of up to […]

[credit provider=”AP Images”] HSBC was stuck between a rock and the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee.On the one hand, it wanted to give its employees cash bonuses because that’s what its employees wanted.

[credit provider=”Wikimedia Commons” url=”http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_nouveau_b%C3%A2timent_de_la_Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9_G%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale,_dans_le_Nouveau_Belgrade.jpg”] Société Générale is cutting bonuses for traders in the firm’s banking division 44% in a reckoning for a 39 per cent fall on year-over-year profits.The Telegraph’s Harry Wilson reports SocGen chief Frédéric Oudéa attempted to soften the blow by saying a similar fate is befalling bankers […]

[credit provider=”Wikimedia Commons” url=”http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%27Occupy_Paradeplatz%27_Z%C3%BCrich_2011-10-22_14-44-56.jpg”] Thanks to a trading scandal that put its investment banking unit deep into the red, UBS announced today it would clawback by 50% bonuses for its most successful investment bankers, the Wall Street Journal’s Deborah Ball reports.It is one of the largest clawbacks ever reported, she […]

[credit provider=”AP”] In this week’s New Statesman Jemima Khan has interviewed the two men battling to be the next Mayor of London — current leader and Conservative Boris Johnson ,and former leader and Labour party hopeful Ken Livingstone.Neither interview is online yet, but Khan has written a blog post detailing […]

UBS just released some dismal bonus pool numbers.

[credit provider=”Flickr”] Today, Lazard reported fourth quarter earnings and missed big.Analysts were expecting a profit of 37 cents per share. The bank delivered only 1 cent per share. 

According to Bloomberg, Blankfein received a $7 million restricted equity bonus for 2011.

[credit provider=”AP”] Despite cuts across the Street, financial institutions and their employees continue to take their share of criticism for their pay practices.Today, The New York Post has a story that offers an example of how some of the furor might be mitigated.

[credit provider=”ell brown / Flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/5673949720/”] LONDON (AP) — Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester will not be accepting a 1 million pound ($1.5 million) bonus that drew criticism from British public and politicians, the bank said Sunday.Spokesman David Gaffney said Hester would not receive the bonus of […]

, along with other media outlets, is reporting that RBS Chairman Sir Philip Hampton has declined his bonus for 2011. He would have been due $2.2 million (£1.4 million) as part of the compensation package he recieved when he joined the bank in 2009.

Based on filings with the SEC, Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein received 24,249 shares currently valued at $2.69 million based on Friday’s closing price og $111.

[credit provider=”barclays.com” url=”http://www.newsroom.barclays.com/Media-Library/UK-Branch-1415.aspx”] Barclays’ biggest shareholders have warned of a major backlash if the bank decides to shower its bankers with lavish annual bonuses.An investor spoke to the Financial Times’ Kate Burgess and Megan Murphy:

Citigroup, the third largest U.S. bank, is expected to cut 2011 bonuses in the investment bank by about 30%, Bloomberg News reported.

[credit provider=”Sotheby’s International Realty”] Home prices in the Hamptons fell in the latter half of 2011, suggesting that the “bloodbath” among Wall Street bonuses may be affecting the real estate market in the area, according to The Wall Street Journal.The Hamptons are a favourite locale for many Wall Streeters and […]

This after the bank announced that compensation for I-bankers would drop by 25%.

[credit provider=”Chicago Booth” url=”http://www.chicagobooth.edu/news/2007-12-10_dougan.aspx”] The paycheck bloodbath continues—Bloomberg has just reported that compensation for senior investment bankers at Credit Suisse is down by as much as 30%.The slashed compensation at the Swiss bank are the latest in a string of pay cut news for the world’s biggest banks as their […]

that Morgan Stanley’s head of emerging markets and foreign exchange, Stephen Mettler, is leaving the firm.

[credit provider=”Business Insider”] The lower bonus situation on Wall Street isn’t just for the bankers, but for the companies that service the bankers as well.Since Bloomberg LP failed to meet its quota for selling its famous terminals, everyone at the financial media giant will receive lower bonus payouts, the New […]

[credit provider=”Bloomberg TV” url=”bloomberg.com”] After appearing on CNBC earlier today, and making a rather outlandish claim about his firm’s European exposure, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman sat down for an interview with Bloomberg TV.Gorman was also direct and firm when asked his recent moves to cut overall pay, cap cash […]

[credit provider=”Wikimedia Commons”] Via The Telegraph, UK Business Secretary Vincent Cable delivered a statement yesterday to the House of Commons on executive pay, particularly at banks.He focused on familiar themes like aligning incentives with all stakeholders, restricting rewards for failure and furthering transparency and accountability.

[credit provider=”AP”] Reuters reports that Morgan Stanley has announced the promotion of 210 employees to managing director (full list below)This news comes after a week in which news of Morgan Stanley’s changing compensation practices made headlines, as the bank sees to decrease and defer the annual bonuses.

Charlie Gasparino at Fox Business News is reporting that Morgan Stanley capped its cash bonus payouts at $125,000 for 2011 because of pressure from a federal regulator, citing sources within the firm.

[credit provider=”Flickr user: essygie” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/essygie/5268112425/”] UK Business Secretary Vincent Cable has been called to parliament today to discuss the government’s plans to regulate executive pay, the Telegraph reports.”We cannot accept top pay rising at five times average workers’ pay as we did last year,” Cable told parliament.

[credit provider=”Daniel Goodman / Business Insider”] Bloomberg is reporting that Credit Suisse has informed senior employees that they will be compensated in part with bonds backed by derivatives.The derivatives are linked to about 800 entities and the bonds will pay a 5% coupon for Swiss franc holders and a 6.5% […]

[credit provider=”Morgan Stanley” url=”http://compliancex.typepad.com/compliancex/2009/06/official-morgan-stanley-smith-barney.html”] Bloomberg is reporting that Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman’s pay will fall 25%. He will receive $10.5 million in total compensation for 2011.$5.1 million of his pay will come in retricted shares. The resk is comprised of base salary, deferred cash and deferred performance-based pay.

Everyone knew bonuses would be down.

If you put together the latest news out of Morgan Stanley that senior bankers and traders will have compensation cut by 20-30% with the previously reported story that cash bonuses would be limited to $125,000, you get a pretty clear picture of Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman’s strategy to cut […]

Expect lots of awkward conversations behind closed doors to be under way right now at 200 West Street.

[credit provider=”Bloomberg”] After a pro forma run through of the relatively weak quarter and year, David Viniar dominated airtime on the call, as usual.Here are some of the key takeaways, paraphrasing and summarizing Viniar’s comments:

[credit provider=”Surat Lozowick” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/suratlozowick/4448156031/sizes/m/in/photostream/”] Goldman Sachs ‘compensation expense’ for 2011 was $12.22 billion or $370,000 per employee*.What does Goldman’s pay look like in larger context?

In this mornings’ earnings release, Goldman Sachs announced that compensation expenses fell 21% to $12.22 billion in 2011.

[credit provider=”AP”] According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, bonus cash payouts at Morgan Stanley will be capped at $125,000 this year. Let us know what you think is going on here and how you feel about this compensation plan. 

[credit provider=”Flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/roland/54381130/”] The first wave of articles speculating about bank bonuses are already out and it’s pretty clear that bonuses will be down.There will be some variation from source to source or institution to institution but the overall trend is clear and unsurprising.

[credit provider=”YouTube” url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzPyhihc6aU”] Lloyds Banking Group’s CEO in London will not accept an annual bonus for 2011 after taking a leave of absence from the embattled bank, according to a statement released Friday. [via Dealbook]”As Chief Executive, I believe my bonus entitlement should reflect the performance of the Group but […]

Amid reports that Wall Street bank pay and bonuses have decreased an certain percentage in 2011 compared to 2010, DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin is highlighting another metric to analyse the salaries that’s making Wall Street pay look a lot less gloomy and a lot more outlandish—the compensation-to-revenue ratio.

Declining bonuses on Wall Street may have pushed Tiffany & Co.’s American operations lower, as city residents kept their purse strings and wallets closed.

[credit provider=”Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images”] Royal Bank of Scotland is set to pay investment bank head John Hourican a £4 million ($6 million) bonus this year, the FT reports.There’s a few reasons this might be somewhat controversial:

[credit provider=”Wikimedia Commons”] It’s already happening in the U.K. and now here in the U.S. a growing group of bankers are planning to sue their employers or walk away if they don’t receive bigger bonuses, according to the New York Post.For example, brokerage execs at Jeffries Group have threatened to […]

JP Morgan has just been put in a tough spot by a new report from Reuters that it withheld the proceeds of asset sales by MF Global from the ailing firm in the days before its collapse.

We’re not sure this would fly in the United States…

Most Wall Streeters have been anticipating a dismal bonus pool this year.

[credit provider=”carltondramaticsociety via flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/carltondrama/6015375547/”] Cold hard cash that can be banked or spent – that’s what nearly three quarters of the workers surveyed in a new Harris poll said they would prefer as a holiday gift from their employers this year. That’s in stark contrast to a mere four per cent […]

[credit provider=”Habourdin Jean-Francois via flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/drtjff/5430100033/”] It’s going to be a holly, jolly Christmas in workplaces across the country this year — even more so than the last.Bosses are taking notice of their workers hard work all year and are planning on rewarding the backbone of their companies — their […]

[credit provider=”consumerist via Flickr” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/consumerist/2972244758/sizes/l/in/photostream/”] The idea that banks have to talk about bonuses with any specificity to anyone other than individual employees or in generalities to anyone other than a small group of shareholders is a rather recent one.Only since the peak of the most recent boom has the […]

Wall Street has got a clever solution for what is gearing up to be a rather lackluster bonus season.

Bad news, bankers.

[credit provider=”Flickr Images Money” url=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/5474194477/”] George Urumov, the global head of fixed income at Russian brokerage firm Otkritie, has been accused by his employer of embezzling at least $17.8 million in signing bonuses, Bloomberg reported.According to the report, Urumov, who was based in London, told the brokerage firm that he […]

First they lose their Christmas party and now they might be losing their year-end bonuses.

Employees of MF Global’s British offices may have received their quarterly bonuses last Monday, just hours before MF Global filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York, The Telegraph is reporting.

[credit provider=”Wikimedia Commons”] We’ve all been expecting the bad news, but now it’s getting official.Wall Street bonuses are going to suck this year and even more so for all the bond traders out there.  

I HAVE a solution for the problem of bankers who take risks that threaten the general public: Eliminate bonuses.

The London-based St. Paul Institute, the cathedral’s working group on the subject of financial services’ ethics, just released a report on bankers’ ethics that it commissioned from the market research company ComRes.

Last Friday, oil driller Nabors Industries announced its long-time CEO Gene Isenberg would be replaced by President and COO Anthony Petrello.  However, the only thing anyone really cares about is Isenberg’s monster $100 million cash package for stepping down.

[credit provider=”AP”] David Cameron has come up with a solution to curbing rising directors’ wages; put more women in the boardroom. The Guardian reports that Cameron expressed dismay at figures released today showing that the salaries of top executives had increased substantially over the past year.

This year’s bonus pool for “City” bankers in London is not going to be pretty, according to a report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research. [via FT]