摩根大通交易巨虧折射出的高管薪酬問題

????杰米?戴蒙于2006年1月1日出任摩根大通首席執行官。根據最近的摩根大通投票委托書，杰米?戴蒙所持股票（和等價物）若按摩根大通6月8日收盤價，價值逾2億美元。如果股價漲至5年前水平，戴蒙所持股票凈值將再增加7500萬美元。

????同樣的股價上漲將令前摩根大通首席投資官伊娜?德魯所持股票凈值增值超過2300萬美元，包括她的延付薪酬和未行權股票。根據戴蒙的證詞，德魯負責的正是造成此次交易巨虧的部門，她直接向戴蒙報告。和近年來一樣，董事會給戴蒙和德魯的的薪酬主要是股票和期權。僅這兩項2011年就分別合計1700萬美元和850萬美元。

????那么，他們的行為驅動力是什么？當董事會以這種方式支付高管薪酬時，傳遞出的時什么信息？

????紐約聯儲銀行去年12月份的一份工作人員報告警告稱，這類高薪可能鼓勵首席執行官的冒險行為，造成公司財務壓力（諷刺的是，戴蒙是紐約聯儲銀行的董事會成員，但要求其離任的一份請愿書獲得超過3.6萬個簽名)。

????與之形成對比的是，監管部門制定的《穩健薪酬指南》建議采用基于風險的指標，即將一家公司和員工的績效與所承擔風險的數量和質量相掛鉤。雖然銀行業宣稱采用基于風險的指標，但股價仍是決定銀行高管實際薪酬的最大決定因素。但推高一家公司的股價和理性承擔風險，往往背道而馳。前雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）首席執行官迪克?富爾德就是一個例子。

????不過，即便是投票委托書列出的考量戴蒙、德魯薪酬的指標，也不是基于風險。今年高管薪酬方案被股東否決的花旗銀行（Citi）通過發言人回復電子郵件，聲稱“花旗通過薪酬計劃，持續強化公司降低風險的能力”，摩根大通、高盛（Goldman）、美國銀行（Bank of America）和摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）拒絕在本文中討論他們的薪酬做法。毫不奇怪。美聯儲（Federal Reserve）2011年10月的一份報告證實大銀行應用基于風險的指標存在“不均衡”現象，每家銀行都有更多工作要做。報告稱“要推廣基于風險的指標，實現一致性和有效性，還有大量的工作要做?！焙喲灾?，銀行董事會需要踹上一腳。

誰會加大監督力度？

????兩年前，美國聯邦存款保險公司（FDIC）發出了一則征求意見的預先通知，計劃如果銀行的薪酬方案風險高，它將向銀行收取更高的存款保險費。這樣一項舉措本應起到敦促銀行盡快調整高管薪酬的作用。但“迄今為止，這一擬議條例尚無進展，”FDIC的一位發言人最近在電子郵件中表示。近日，FDIC的代理主席馬丁?格魯伯格在參議院發表預先準備好的講話時，也沒有談到薪酬或這樣一項擬議條例。

????Jamie Dimon became CEO of J.P. Morgan on January 1, 2006. The latest J.P. Morgan proxy shows that Jamie Dimon holds shares (and equivalents) worth over $200 million based on the company's closing price June 8. If the stock price rose to where it was just five years ago, his net worth would jump by $75 million.

????A similar pop would net Ina Drew, former chief investment officer at the bank, over $23 million, if you include her deferred compensation and unvested shares. Drew oversaw the unit responsible for the large losses and reported directly to Dimon according to the testimony this morning. As in years past, the board gave Dimon and Drew's pay primarily in stock and options-based awards. Those items alone totaled $17 million and $8.5 million in 2011, respectively.

????So what really drives their behavior? And what message is the board sending when they pay their executives this way?

????This kind of high pay is exactly what a December New York Fed staff report warned could encourage risky CEO behavior and create economic distress. (Ironically, Dimon sits on the NY Fed's board, although a petition for his removal has garnered over 36,000 signatures.)

????In contrast, sound compensation guidance from the regulators recommends risk-based measures, which put a company's and its employees' performance in the context of the quantity and quality of the risk that's taken on. Though banks claim to use risk-based measures, stock price is still the biggest determining factor in top bank executives' actual rewards. But goosing a company's stock price and taking rational risks are not exactly close companions. Former CEO Dick Fuld at Lehman Brothers was the poster child for this issue.

????Even the measures cited in the proxy for rewarding Dimon and Drew are not risk-based. While a spokesperson for Citi (C) (which received a no vote on pay this year) wrote in an email that "Citi has continued to enhance the ability of the firm to reduce risks through its compensation programs," J. P. Morgan, Goldman (GS), Bank of America (BAC), and Morgan Stanley (MS) declined to discuss their pay practices for this article. No wonder. An October 2011 report by the Federal Reserve confirms that the use of risk-based measures at the large banks is "uneven" and every bank has more work to do. "Substantial work remains to be done to achieve consistency and effectiveness … in providing balanced risk-taking incentives," the report states. Put simply, bank boards need a kick in the pants.

Who will step up?

????The FDIC put out an advanced notice over two years ago asking for comments on proposing a rule that would charge banks more for depository insurance if their pay programs were risky. Such a measure could have been a real impetus to fix pay. But, "to date, there has been no follow-up to the advance notice of proposed rulemaking," an FDIC spokesperson recently emailed me. And Martin Gruenberg, acting chair of the FDIC, did not address pay or such a proposed rule in his prepared testimony before the Senate last week.