NEW YORK —
Bank of America gave its chief executive a pay package worth $7.5 million last year, six times as large as the year before. It happened while the company’s stock lost more than half its value and the bank lost its claim as the biggest in the country.
The package for Brian Moynihan included a salary of $950,000; a $6.1 million stock award; and about $420,000 worth of use of company aircraft and tax and financial advice. The figures are from an analysis of a regulatory filing Wednesday.
In 2010, Moynihan’s pay package totaled $1.2 million.
The board of directors said the stock award to Moynihan was justified because the bank turned a profit after losing money in 2010 and because it ended the year with a stronger balance sheet.
Moynihan, 52, took over as CEO in 2010. His first year was marked by mounting losses in credit cards and vastly reduced income from checking accounts. It lost $2.2 billion.
Last year, BofA fought a tide of lawsuits that cost the company $14 billion. Worried over how deep the mortgage problems were, the Federal Reserve refused to let the company increase its stock dividend. Its stock lost 58 percent of its value in 2011, and BofA lost the title of No. 1 bank by assets to JPMorgan Chase.
The company posted earnings of $1.4 billion in 2011 and raised $34 billion by selling assets not considered central to its business.
The Associated Press
