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Journalism of Courage
Three senior Bank of America Corp executives will be able start selling a portion of their bonus shares as soon as August under a new program,according to regulatory filings on Wednesday.
Corporate governance experts have been pushing banks to give executives a higher percentage of their compensation in shares,to align employees8217; interests with the bank8217;s.
But many banks have been reducing the amount of time that executives need to hold shares,blunting the impact of the bank awarding stock in the first place.
In prior years executives at the largest US bank by assets have had to wait as long as three years before they could start selling shares. Bank of America8217;s executives still receive the bulk of their shares this way,according to company filings.
Bank of America awarded Chief Risk Officer Bruce Thompson,interim Chief Financial Officer Neil Cotty and General Counsel Edward O8217;Keefe shares. All were recently named to new posts in January under new Chief Executive Brian Moynihan.
Thompson received the largest award of 258,467 shares,according to the filings.
Cotty received 43,356 shares,while O8217;Keefe received 25,504 shares,the filings stated.
A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment.
Under the terms of the new stock award program,the newly awarded restrict stock converts to common shares and vests immediately 8212; in this case on February 12 8212; and are payable in two installments.
The executives then receive 50 per cent of the stock six months after the initial grant date,the rest 18 months after.
Thompson also received 609,179 restricted stock units,which will fully vest by 2013. Cotty got 130,068 units and O8217;Keefe got 76,511 units,in awards that will also fully vest by then.
Separately,Sallie Krawcheck,head of global wealth and investment management,received 167,786 restricted stock units that fully vest in 2013.
