Vikram Pandit Receives Massive Bonus While Citigroup Slashes Jobs

Citi CEO Vikram Pandit speaks during Citibank's new high-tech banking center opening in New York's Union Square, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. (AP)

In a common refrain, a high-level executive is getting a big bonus while his employees receive pink slips. Only this time, it's happening on Wall Street.

Vikram Pandit, chief executive of Citigroup, the nation's third largest bank, is receiving $14.9 million in compensation for his work in 2011, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nine-tenths of Pandit's pay comes from his bonus -- the CEO's first since 2008 -- which includes $7.8 million in stock options and $5.3 million in cash.

Pandit is being rewarded for making his company profitable again, and that includes plans to cut thousands of workers. Citigroup says it plans to lay off 4,500 employees in the immediate future.

But despite its profitability, Citigroup stock hasn't been performing well. Though the company's profit rose 6 percent last year, according to Reuters, its stock price plunged 44.4 percent, according to Google Finance.

Pandit worked for $1 per year with no bonus in 2009 and 2010 as the bank struggled to return to profitability after receiving a government bailout.

Pandit's Citigroup is stopping short of nothing to raise revenue. The bank announced earlier this week that it will use IBM's "Watson" supercomputer to "analyze customer needs" and "personalize digital banking." Citigroup also plans to charge $10 monthly fees, on combined checking and savings accounts with a balance of less than $1,500.

Still, in comparison to many of his peers, Pandit has more overtly sympathized with the frustrations of everyday Americans. He said on Wednesday that more financial regulation was necessary after the financial crisis, according to The New York Times. In addition, Pandit said in October that the sentiments of the Occupy Wall Street protestors are "completely understandable."

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, took home roughly $23 million in 2011 and has been less charitable toward critics and new financial regulations. He said in February that he was safer in Lebanon than he was with Occupy Wall Street protestors. He also recently declared journalist pay "just damned outrageous."

Comments

[Debc8t]

03:28 PM on 03/26/2012

I have no problem with him being compensated for his efforts. However, his employees walked away with the lowest raises and no bonuses that they have received in almost 20 years. It would have been laughable had it not been true, the %'s given were a slap in the face to the loyalty and hardwork displayed by those of us in the "working class". I would just like to see a corporation that instill loyalty to the lower level staff that make the profits possible....the company no longer cares about maintaining talent. It is sad to see how much change the company has undergone and not for the better.

[berklawdc]

12:02 PM on 03/21/2012

I simply don’t get it. These banks seem to be living in a parallel and forgiving universe where losing money is rewarded and risk (failing the stress test) is not only tolerated but rewarded as well. As a sports fan, I’m reminded of the price to be paid for free agents. They receive huge signing bonuses (Pandit-like in some instances). But they have earned it by their performance: more home runs, touchdowns, rushing yards, you name it, they have a statistic. But could a top NFL receiver go in to see the general manager and demand a raise after dropping a dozen touchdown passes; or a quarterback with more interceptions than touchdowns ask for a raise? I hardly think so.

www.thecorporateobserver.com

[SweetClarissa]

02:17 PM on 03/12/2012

Priceless the way the filthy banks and their greaseball executives pretend the the crashing and trashing of economies worldwide is some mind-of-its-own phenomenon that is not in any way subject to their control and that they and theirs are just as helplessly at the mercy of it as all the rest of us. Obviously they think we are all morons.

[Mabeline]

11:02 AM on 03/12/2012

Top Talent my behind. If the Supreme Court has identified corporations as people, then Citibank is human garbage much the same as that Rush Limbaugh person. This Vikram Pandit will rake in between $24M to $42M this year and for what? The United States Welfare Program gave this bank a handout, for which this Pandit guy says, "we have a debt of gratitude to the American people," and then they do this. I won't even begin to tell you how my 83-year old mother was treated with her measly $250 credit line, and the $2 minimum fee.

These people, companies, whatever you want to identify them as, are crooks who use loop holes and the stupidity of our government (I'm no fan of any of them) to rape and pillage the taxpayers and laugh all the way to their lavish mansions.

Everyone who has a Citibank credit card or account should close their account and take the business elsewhere.

[fortressfountain]

10:49 AM on 03/12/2012

People who paid into the pension fund for years have their pensions frozen or stolen to support this so called top talent.

[guveqzero]

10:41 AM on 03/12/2012

These men should be jailed. During WWII they would have been.

[Billy Jack]

10:15 AM on 03/12/2012

The company could also have been profitable if he didn't collect the bonus, but rather kept the employees

[Billy Jack]

10:14 AM on 03/12/2012

His head would fit nicely on a stake

[SweetClarissa]

02:25 PM on 03/12/2012

I'd bet he'd boil nicely in oil as well and it would be but a mere snap to fabricate a flashy pair of cement Doc Martens for him wear while he Tejas-Two-Steps his way down to the basement of the Marianas Trench.

[Billy Jack]

10:13 AM on 03/12/2012

Vagrant Panderer is a thief

[Billy Jack]

10:12 AM on 03/12/2012

So basically, this guy fired thousands of people so he could get his bonus.

[SweetClarissa]

02:33 PM on 03/12/2012

Happens all the time in private 'industry'. Seriously, the most standard, tired, worn-out, commonly used maneuver by CEOs to make cash (usually for the shareholders also) is to lay off the workforce...usually followed by the CEO then making a hasty and lucrative exit from the now compromised company.

[Billy Jack]

04:13 PM on 03/12/2012

you have summarized the whole problem with the current Free market system, and i use the term Free loosely

[Khoi Nguyen]

02:50 AM on 03/12/2012

citi is no good...

[mrJJ]

01:26 AM on 03/12/2012

What the FED actually doled out to Citi

Citigroup Inc: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)

page 144 GAO Report

http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation#outer_page_144

The other major Banks got their share too

Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)

[maigoro]

04:59 AM on 03/11/2012

He worked without pay for 2 years. He is a top level executive with a lot of skills and his job is to make sure his company is profitable and if that means retrenching 4500 people, so be it. When you are responsible for other people's investments and have to answer to them, you do what you need to do to execute your job functions. It is not the first company that has done this and this is not new & strange corporate behavior and I don't understand why folks react so strongly to this kind of news. They hired these folks when they needed them and now they do not need them anymore. These folks will get packages and hopefully will get new jobs soon. Would we rather CitiCorp shut its doors and fire everyone.

[SwordOrShield]

12:53 AM on 03/12/2012

No pay? Well, sure, I mean in 2010/2009, of course. $1 a year, how noble!

...Except now, in 2012, he made more money then I'm likely to make in my entire lifetime. And he made millions in 2008. And 2007. Again, any one year - as much as, or more, then I'm likely to make in 50.

Yeah, he's so noble. Underwent such privation.

Frankly, the idea of corporations sucks. Being responsible only to create a profit, to shareholders who don't have any real stake in your company besides "WE PUT MONEY IN IT". Doesn't matter how many people you lay off or why. Doesn't matter the damage you do to their lives.

People react this way because corporations are inhumane by nature, and we are still humans. I'd rather see a co-op like structure; where companies exist for the people who work for them.

[maigoro]

04:15 AM on 03/12/2012

The idea you are suggesting will not work will not succeed because we humans have different desires, intelligence, energy, etc. There are also many reasons why humans love what they do but money is by far the greatest motivator. As much as I like money I do not wish to spend every waking minute of my life chasing it or thinking about it - but people like Mr. Pandit don't mind it. I do not have the background, experience or interest in banking or accounting but he does. And so on. If his employer thinks he is worth that much, then that is the employer's right. If the employer thinks he does not need so many people doing this job or that, that is also the employer's right. We have to be careful to allow people to imagine, work hard, innovate and make lots of money doing it. It is what makes Americans what they are.

[Billy Jack]

10:17 AM on 03/12/2012

He could have kept the employees and no bonus

[chatnuptime1]

01:50 AM on 03/11/2012

How many employee's will get pink slips to give him a raise? And charge how much for accounts under 1,500? Keep it up CiTi.. we will be reading your companies name in the stock obituary columne in the not so distant future.

[USA10]

11:16 PM on 03/10/2012

??????????????? hp