Blankfein Awarded $7M in Stock for ’11

By Michael J. Moore and Christine Harper - Feb 4, 2012 12:00 PM GMT+0700

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), the fifth- biggest U.S. bank by assets, gave Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein a $7 million restricted-stock bonus for 2011, a decrease from $12.6 million a year earlier.

Blankfein, 57, received 61,702 shares on Feb. 1, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The stock closed at $113.45 in New York that day. Goldman Sachs raised Blankfein’s salary to $2 million last year from $600,000.

Goldman Sachs’s 2011 earnings dropped 47 percent to the lowest level since 2008 on a second consecutive annual decline in fixed-income trading revenue. The New York-based firm reduced compensation 21 percent and eliminated 2,400 jobs. The stock fell 46 percent in 2011, more than the 18 percent drop in the S&P 500 Financials Index.

Chief Financial Officer David Viniar, President Gary Cohn, and Vice Chairmen J. Michael Evans and John S. Weinberg each also received 61,702 restricted shares, according to separate filings issued yesterday. Base salaries for those four executives jumped last year to $1.85 million each from $600,000.

The filings don’t include how much any of the executives have been awarded in cash bonuses. Blankfein received a $5.4 million cash bonus for 2010, his first since getting about $27 million in cash bonuses for each of 2007 and 2006.

James A. Johnson, a former CEO of Fannie Mae and the longest serving member of the Goldman Sachs board, is chairman of the compensation committee. The company won approval from 73 percent of shareholders for its compensation plan at the last annual meeting in May, down from 96 percent a year earlier.

JPMorgan’s Dimon

JPMorgan Chase & Co. left Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon’s pay package for 2011 almost unchanged at about $23 million after trimming stock and options awards, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.

JPMorgan, the largest and most profitable U.S. bank, paid Dimon $17.3 million in restricted stock and options for 2011, down from $17.4 million for 2010, including 337,032 restricted shares valued at about $12.3 million, according to regulatory filings on Jan. 19 by the New York-based company. The package awarded 562,430 options valued by the firm at about $5 million, according to the person, who asked for anonymity because compensation matters are confidential.

Morgan Stanley (MS), the sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets, paid Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James Gorman $10.5 million for 2011, a 25 percent decrease from the previous year, a person familiar with the decision said on Jan. 19.

Gorman, 53, will get 277,768 restricted shares, valued at $5.1 million at the Jan. 19 closing price of $18.39, according to a filing with the SEC.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael J. Moore in New York at mmoore55@bloomberg.net; Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net.