cross-posted from Working America's Main Street blog where I am a featured guest blogger
Credit card company CEOs and top executives have joined the ranks of the big bonus boys at Wall Street's largest banks, raking in bonuses and annual compensation for 2009 in excess of $10 million each.
Leaders in the pay sweepstakes include the heads of the credit card giants Visa, Mastercard Worldwide, Capital One Financial and American Express. Joseph W. Saunders, who runs Visa, was paid about $15.5 million
Mastercard president Ajay Banga took in $13.5 million. Hans Morris, former president of Visa, got $10.7 million while the CEOs of Capital One Financial and American Express each took in $10.6 million.
The vast sums paid to the credit card chiefs places them well up in the ranks of some of Wall Street's highest paid executives.
The head of Wells Fargo, the bank that became bigger than ever when it took over failing Wachovia at the end of 2008, became the highest paid big bank executive.
Topping the list is John G. Stumpf, head of Wells Fargo, the bank based in San Francisco, according to an analysis of 2009 compensation in the industry. Mr. Stumpf was paid a personal best of $18.7 million in cash and stock for 2009 — up 64 percent from 2007, just before the financial crisis struck.
The bonus package given to Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is reportedly worth $17 million, while James P. Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, got an $8 million bonus despite the bank having posted the first loss in its 74-year history.
If you're having trouble wrapping your head around such huge sums, believe me you're not alone. Just what is an annual pay package of, say $10 million equivalent to? It's about $192,300 a week or a mere $4,800 an hour.
Other than driving the economy into the deepest recession since the Great Depression, throwing millions of people out of work, millions more out of their homes, jacking up credit card rates and fees and forcing millions more into bankruptcy -- exactly what have these elite financial executives actually done to make that kind of money?
One thing they've done is to take hundreds of billions of tax dollars in bailout money.
And another thing is they've spent vast sums on lobbying to derail financial reform.
Lobbying expenditures jumped 12% from 2008 to $29.8 million last year among the eight banks and private equity firms that spent the most to influence legislation, according to data compiled from disclosure forms filed with Congress.
The biggest spender was JPMorgan Chase & Co., whose lobbying budget rose 12% to $6.2 million, enough for the firm to have more than 30 lobbyists working for it. Among other banks, spending on lobbying rose 27% at Wells Fargo & Co. and 16% at Morgan Stanley.
"I have never seen such a scrum of bank lobbyists as I have in the last year -- and I've worked on quite a few bank issues over the years," said Ed Mierzwinski, a lobbyist for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a coalition of state consumer organizations. "It seems like everybody is out of work except for bank lobbyists."
And with their Republican Congressional allies in tow, their primary target is to block the Obama administration's proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA).
Americans for Financial Reform is a new national coalition of more than 200 organizations including Working America -- groups that are fighting back against the big banks, credit card companies and their lobbyists. A new ad from several coalition partners is being aired:
It's time to send a message to the big banks and the credit card bonus crowd. Tell them it's their Final Notice - Payment Past Due. Your message will tell the Senate it's time to enact a financial crisis responsibility fee on the biggest banks and establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to hold Wall Street accountable.