Wells Fargo Awards CEO With Pay Hike, Gives Performance Bonus

Wells Fargo & Company’s (NYSE:WFC) CEO Timothy Sloan has received a total compensation of nearly $18.4 million for 2018, up nearly 5% year over year. Per the company’s proxy statement, the increase in the pay package was largely driven by $2 million given as bonus based on his full-year achievements.

The base salary remained unchanged at $2.4 million. Also, Sloan’s pay package includes $14 million in stock awards. In 2017, he decided to forgo annual incentive award and earned a total salary of $17.5 million. Despite no bonus, the salary reflected a 36% rise from the previous year.

Sloan is said to have shown prudent leadership throughout the year that resulted in strong financial results and helped the bank make steady progress in achieving targets.

In the filing, CEO was appraised for his consistent efforts at creating a simpler and consumer- friendly bank. His efforts are likely to have improved customer loyalty and satisfaction scores to a two-year high.

Further, achievement of cost-savings target and steady distribution of capital to shareholders through common stock dividends and net share repurchases, got brownie points for Sloan.

Despite these achievements, Wells Fargo had been in news throughout 2018, either for involvement in a scandal or for the Federal Reserve’s major move to restrict asset growth in response to “widespread consumer abuses and compliance breakdowns” made by the bank.

The pay raise news came a day after the CEO was grilled by lawmakers to show the progress made by Wells Fargo since news of unauthorized customer accounts came out.

Compensation of CEOs at Other Big Banks

One of the Wall Street’s biggest bank — JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) — has reportedly paid CEO Jamie Dimon a total compensation $31 million, up 5% from the previous year.

Brian Moynihan, CEO at Bank of America (NYSE:C) received a 15% hike in his total compensation package for 2018. His total annual pay increased to $26.5 million in 2018, according to the company’s proxy statement.

Also, Citigroup’s (NYSE:C) CEO — Michael Corbat — has received about 4.35% pay hike in his total compensation package. His annual salary has been increased to $24 million in 2018 from $23 million in 2017, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week.

Our Take

Wells Fargo’s efforts to reduce expenses and undertake other remedial measures might help it put behind the past wrongdoings. It remains focused on attracting new customers and deepen relationships with customer-focused innovation, which might help boost its financials. However, pending legal cases and close supervision of the regulatory authorities remain key concerns.

This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has rallied 7.1% over the past three months compared with 11.2% growth recorded by the industry. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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