BAC Bank of America Corporation

By Rachel Louise Ensign 

Bank of America Corp. on Monday became the first big U.S. bank to unveil how much more its CEO makes than its typical employee.

The lender said in its annual proxy filing that in 2017 Chief Executive Brian Moynihan earned 250 times as much as the median bank employee. The disclosure is one that other big banks and companies are planning to make for the first time.

This year, U.S. publicly traded firms are required for the first time to divulge their median employee pay in addition to CEO pay, and the ratio between the two.

Mr. Moynihan earned $23 million for 2017, a year in which the bank hit new profit milestones and finally put its crisis-era issues behind it. The methodology used in the ratio uses a slightly different pay figure for Mr. Moynihan. By comparison, the median Bank of America employee had total compensation of $87,115 for the year.

With more than 200,000 employees ranging from investment bankers to tellers, pay at Bank of America varies widely. Capital One Financial Corp., for instance, had a similar ratio, with its chief executive earning 261 times the median employee.

The employee-pay disclosure was mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act in the wake of the financial crisis, with the aim of helping shareholders better understand and challenge executive-compensation practices at major U.S. companies. After a series of corporate scandals in the early 2000s and again during the financial crisis, investors have scrutinized CEOs' rising pay and pressed boards to better align it with performance.

Bank of America also on Monday released information on the pay earned by executives other than Mr. Moynihan. Chief Operating Officer Tom Montag, who runs the bank's businesses that cater to companies and institutional investors, earned $19 million, up from $17 million a year earlier. Other executives also got raises.

The bank also revealed in its annual report two new markets where it plans to open branches soon: Salt Lake City and Lexington, Ky. Too big to pursue more acquisitions after the financial crisis, the lender is trying to grow instead by strategically expanding to cities where it has no branches. In recent years, the lender has opened or announced plans to open branches in the Denver, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh areas.

Write to Rachel Louise Ensign at rachel.ensign@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 12, 2018 19:03 ET (23:03 GMT)

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