Wells Fargo executives received multimillion-dollar pay increases in 2017, despite increased regulatory scrutiny over the account scandals, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Compensation for Timothy Sloan, the beleaguered bank's CEO, amounted to $17.6 million, up 35% from his $13 million pay for 2016, according to proxy filings made last week.
It was Sloan's first full year as CEO, having taken over when John Stumpf resigned after agreeing to pay $185 million to regulators over the unauthorized accounts scandal. His compensation is 291 times the salary of the bank's median worker.
The bank's chief financial officer, John Shrewsberry, saw his pay increase to $11.9 million from $9.3 million in 2016, while Avid Modjtabai, responsible for Wells Fargo's payments and online projects, received $10.6 million against the $9.3 million he received in 2016.
The filing said the increases were considered "reasonable and appropriate" by the committee that reviews executive pay.
Most of the increases are made up of stock awards. Sloan's salary of $2.4 million was boosted by $15 million in awards, provided the company achieves certain goals.
They will vest over a number of years and will fluctuate with the stock price. Ultimately, the executives could receive considerably more — or less — than these sums.
The share price, which achieved a recent high, has been undermined by yet further disclosures and enforcement action by the Federal Reserve last month, one of the last acts of former chair Janet Yellen against "widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns."
