plus 3, Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd's Financial Institutions Regulatory ... - New York Daily News

Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd's Financial Institutions Regulatory ... - New York Daily News
Bank of America executive pay remains hot-button subject - CharlotteObserver.com
UNESCO Worried Over Israel’s Mosques Plan - Islam Online
New Markets Tax Credit Program Funds Three Projects in Kansas City - Kansas City infoZine

Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd's Financial Institutions Regulatory ... - New York Daily News

Posted: 27 Feb 2010 08:22 AM PST

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

Reuters

Saturday, February 27th 2010, 4:00 AM

Cash Cops

Do you think banks need a super cop?

A bold proposal by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd to set up a single supervisor for U.S. banks looks doomed, said a source familiar with Senate committee discussions on Friday.

The Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration, which Dodd proposed in November, likely will not be included in revised legislation expected to be released next week by the committee, said the source, cautioning plans could change.

Instead, the Federal Reserve may keep its role as overseer of large bank holding companies, and the Comptroller of the Currency's office may remain in place, said the source.

At the same time, a document obtained by Reuters on Friday showed Dodd is circulating a plan to make President Barack Obama's proposed financial consumer watchdog a division of the Treasury Department, rather than an independent agency.

The document, said by a financial industry source to have originated from Dodd's office, proposed renaming the watchdog the Bureau of Financial Protection, giving it a presidentially appointed director, a dedicated budget, rule-writing authority and wide powers.

Dodd's office could not be reached immediately to comment on the document.

Obama in mid-2009 proposed an independent U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Agency to regulate mortgages, credit cards and other financial products. But it ran into stiff resistance from Republicans and lobbyists for banks and Wall Street.

In recent weeks, Dodd has discussed a range of possible compromises on the watchdog proposal. The Bureau of Financial Protection approach has yet to win support of Republicans, said a financial services industry source close to Senate talks.

Both developments -- on the banking supervision agency and the consumer watchdog -- could mark turning points in the Senate's long discussions about regulatory reform following the worst U.S. financial crisis since the 1930s.

If the Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration that Dodd proposed is dropped, the bill he hopes to bring to the Senate floor soon would more closely align with one approved in December by the U.S. House of Representatives, simplifying House-Senate reconciliation of their measures.

But abandoning the FIRA would also mark a retreat from an ambitious plan to consolidate a patchwork of bank regulators that was widely criticized after the crisis for gaps in oversight and narrowness of vision in monitoring the industry.

The FIRA would have streamlined the bank oversight duties of the Fed, the Comptroller, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, and other now separate agencies.

The Fed in recent weeks has pushed hard to preserve its role as supervisor of the nation's largest bank holding companies such as Citigroup (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N).

As plans stand now, the Fed may keep that job, but be stripped of its supervision of state-chartered banks in the Fed system. Responsibility for those banks would shift to the FDIC, which already examines many other state-chartered banks that are not in the Fed system, the source said.

Dodd's plan for closing the Office of Thrift Supervision, which regulates thrift institutions, appears to be unchanged. The House bill calls for closing the OTS, as well.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Bank of America executive pay remains hot-button subject - CharlotteObserver.com

Posted: 27 Feb 2010 07:46 AM PST

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

Bank of America's current top executives are pulling down pay ranging from $6 million to nearly $30 million for 2009, amounts that critics say illustrate the disconnect between Main Street and bank executives.

The new chief executive of the Charlotte bank, Brian Moynihan, received total compensation of about $6 million last year, up from about $3 million in 2008, according to a proxy filing Friday afternoon.

The biggest pay package disclosed went to Tom Montag, a Wall Street veteran from Merrill Lynch, who received total compensation of $29.9 million.

Former CEO Ken Lewis, who stepped down Dec. 31, will leave the company with at least $70 million in pension benefits, stock and other compensation.

Lewis received no pay in 2009 except for "other compensation" worth $32,171, largely for tax preparation and financial planning services. Under fire for his purchase of Merrill Lynch, he agreed last fall to give up his 2009 pay as part of an agreement with the Obama administration's pay czar.

The bank points out that "stock salary" units make up the vast majority of executives' pay for 2009, in line with recommendations from pay czar Ken Feinberg.

"Even though it's tied up in stock ... that's still a ton of money that they're raking in," said Richard Clayton, research director at the CtW Investment Group.

Other disclosures in the filing include that former chief risk officer Greg Curl, who vied with Moynihan for the CEO post, will retire at the end of March. The board of directors will shrink to 13 members, with chairman Walter Massey leaving in April.

And the bank is not renewing a retirement agreement with director Chad Gifford, a perk that gave him more than $1 million last year in personal use of company-provided airplanes.

Bank executives' pay is a hot-button issue for many lawmakers and shareholders. But bankers' pay also greases the skids of the Charlotte economy, supporting everything from charities to restaurants.

The $6 million pay for Moynihan was up significantly in 2009 compared to the year before, even though the bank lost money for the year.

Moynihan, who was head of consumer banking before becoming CEO on Jan. 1, received a salary of $800,000, plus a stock grant worth $5.2 million and other compensation of $36,248. He received no bonus.

The bank said the executives' stock salary units are payable in monthly installments spread out over three years. They do not pay dividends, and the bank reserves the right to reclaim them if it discovers that the executive "engaged in certain detrimental conduct" that hurts the bank.

Feinberg and shareholder activists encourage companies to pay their executives largely in stock, because it ties the fortunes of the leaders to that of their shareholders and influences them to consider the company's long-term interests.

But CtW's Clayton and another corporate-governance expert said Friday that Bank of America's changes in pay structure aren't enough. The sheer size of the payments, they said, is a problem that is endemic throughout the industry.

Charles Elson, at the University of Delaware's Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, praised the bank for tying pay more closely to the stock price. But, he said, it still appears that the board is ignoring the sentiments of shareholders.

"The shareholders of this company have taken a shellacking," said Elson, who is a shareholder. "There's been basically no dividend, there has been a tremendous drop in value (in the stock price) compared to two years ago, and there's little sign that it will come back. You have to wonder if anyone merits an increased package."

The $29.9 million package for Montag, president of global banking and markets, came almost entirely from stock grants. It includes $20 million in restricted stock given out in January 2009 under a 2008 contract with Merrill Lynch. Montag's Merrill stock grant vests over three years, with the first third vesting this January.

The proxy also outlined the bundle of benefits and stock holdings Lewis carried with him into retirement after a four-decade career with the bank.

At the end of December, his pension benefits tallied $57.4 million and his deferred compensation accounts held $11.4 million. His unvested restricted stock and options will continue to vest on their original schedule. As of Dec. 31, his unvested restricted shares were worth $4.6 million and his 733,333 unvested stock options were worthless.

The restricted stock and stock options will become vested as long as Lewis doesn't go to work for certain competitors during the original vesting period.

Lewis also has a life insurance policy that, as of Dec. 31, would pay his beneficiary $10.3 million upon the death of both Lewis and his wife. The bank recoups the premiums it has paid at that time.

Last year, the bank had to submit its pay plans for the top executives to pay czar Feinberg because it had received $45 billion in government loans. Those restrictions lifted when the bank paid back the money in December.

Since then New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed civil charges against the bank, Lewis and former CFO Joe Price, alleging they intentionally misled shareholders about Merrill's losses before a December 2008 vote to buy the bank. The bank and executives say the allegations are false and they will fight the charges.

In the filing, the board's compensation and benefits committee said it will follow its own pay practices in 2010, not those outlined by the pay czar.

The bank said it will discontinue stock salary awards in 2010 and, as previously disclosed, said it set Moynihan's 2010 cash salary at $950,000, while Montag and Price will receive $800,000 each in cash salary.

The Observer calculates compensation as salary, stock awards, bonus and options exercised. Top Bank of America executives did not give themselves a bonus for 2009. They also did not exercise any options.

More on the disclosures:

Chief risk officer Curl's departure at the end of March marks the second Lewis confidant to announce his retirement this year, joining chief administrative officer Steele Alphin.

Curl is assisting in the transition of his risk duties and on consulting on possible strategic partnerships, the bank said.

He will be eligible for a partial discretionary incentive award for 2010 but will not be eligible for any cash severance payments under a contract he entered before a Bank of America predecessor bought Boatmen's Bancshares Inc. in 1997.

The shrinking of the board by two members to 13 sets a new fixed size. Joining chairman Massey in stepping down after the annual meeting is Tom Ryan, who is CEO of CVS/Caremark Corp. Massey is about to reach the mandatory retirement age of 72.

Corporate governance experts praised the move; they tend to believe that bigger boards can be lethargic and ineffective.

Early last year, angry regulators and shareholders blamed the board for many of Bank of America's failings, saying the directors never pushed back on the executives' requests. The board has undergone a major overhaul since then under government pressure, shrinking from 18 members.

The board didn't say who the new chairman will be; it probably won't make an announcement at least until the annual meeting on April 28. The board cannot pick CEO Moynihan because shareholders passed a rule last year requiring the chairman to be independent of the company.

Director Gifford, the former CEO of FleetBoston, had a five-year retirement agreement that ran out Jan. 31, but the bank could have renewed it.

Under the agreement, Gifford got use of company-provided aircraft for up to 120 hours a year, an extra $50,000 on top of his regular board pay of at least $240,000, office space and secretarial support. In exchange, he gave the bank advice on marketing and philanthropy in the Northeast.

For 2009, the bank spent $956,007 on Gifford's airline use, plus $293,004 to help him pay for the accompanying taxes. It spent $238,155 for his office space and administrative support.

Though the plane and the extra money are going away, the bank said it will "continue to provide administrative support for so long as we continue to provide Mr. Gifford an office."

Subscribe to The Charlotte Observer & Earn Miles.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

UNESCO Worried Over Israel’s Mosques Plan - Islam Online

Posted: 27 Feb 2010 07:10 AM PST

[fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content]

The UNESCO director voiced concern over Israel's plan to add the two Muslim mosques to its Jewish heritage list. (Google) CAIRO – The United Nations cultural body voiced concerns Friday, February 26, over Israel's plans to annex two Muslim ...

New Markets Tax Credit Program Funds Three Projects in Kansas City - Kansas City infoZine

Posted: 27 Feb 2010 07:46 AM PST

[fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content]

Reeves Wiedeman Company, the Greater Kansas City Boys and Girls Clubs and Posty Cards Inc. Kansas City, MO - infoZine - The City of Kansas City, Mo., Community Development Entity has completed funding of three New Markets Tax Credit projects. The ...