President Barack Obama took on bailed-out Wall Street firms, setting a $500,000 annual cap on pay for top executives at
companies receiving taxpayer funds.
Former President Bush signed into law an historic unprecedented $700 billion plan to rescue the U.S. financial system last year. The
deal authorized the Treasury to buy troubled assets from financial
institutions. The ceiling on federal insurance for bank deposits was
raised from $100,000 to $250,000 and the plan contains a $100 billion
in tax breaks. It also limited the compensations for CEO's, barring
so-called golden parachute severance payments.
But was that really the case?
"We're
not
abrogating contracts," said a Treasury official who briefed reporters, short after the bailout plan was revealed. So a lot of the Wall Street CEO's kept their
hefty
paychecks.
February ' 09 President Obama said that his administration would not allow public money to be wasted on payouts to CEOs whose businesses helped spur the financial and economic crisis. "For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation
packages in the midst of this economic crisis is not only bad taste --
it's bad strategy -- and I will not tolerate it as president," he said.
The new rules will apply foremost to companies that receive so-called exceptional aid from the government in the future.
Citigroup, Bank of America, General Motors and AIG are among the firms that have received exceptional aid in recent months, though the new rules won't apply retroactively.
Take a look below and find out what the compensation of the Wall Street CEO's is. Their
packages vary according to different sources - click on the pay links
to see more information per source.
