Skip to content Skip to footer
|

Citigroup CEO Walks off With $260 Million After His Bank Loses 88 Percent of Its Value

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit abruptly resigned today, leaving the helm of the bank that he guided through the financial crisis of 2008.

Click here to support news free of corporate influence by donating to Truthout. Help us reach our goal of 750 donations by the end of this week!

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit abruptly resigned yesterday, leaving the helm of the bank that he guided through the financial crisis of 2008. For his five years of leading Citi, Pandit will receive compensation in the neighborhood of $260 million:

If no alterations are made to Pandit’s compensation package, Citigroup will have paid him about $261 million in the five years since he became CEO, including his personal compensation and about $165 million for buying his Old Lane Partners LP hedge fund in 2007 in a deal that led to his becoming CEO. The bank shut Old Lane soon after Pandit took the post, causing a $202 million writedown.

But while Pandit made off like a bandit, shareholders were not so lucky. Via Matt Yglesias, here’s Citigroup’s stock performance since Pandit took over:

101712v ch

Overall, Citi lost 88 percent of its value under Pandit. Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal dinged Pandit for having the pay package that was most detached from his company’s performance, as a three-year decline of 27 percent coincided with his making $43 million. The Dodd-Frank financial reform law gave shareholders the right to hold a non-binding vote on executive compensation, and Pandit was the first bank CEO to get tagged with a vote of disapproval.

We’re not going to stand for it. Are you?

You don’t bury your head in the sand. You know as well as we do what we’re facing as a country, as a people, and as a global community. Here at Truthout, we’re gearing up to meet these threats head on, but we need your support to do it: We must raise $16,000 before midnight to ensure we can keep publishing independent journalism that doesn’t shy away from difficult — and often dangerous — topics.

We can do this vital work because unlike most media, our journalism is free from government or corporate influence and censorship. But this is only sustainable if we have your support. If you like what you’re reading or just value what we do, will you take a few seconds to contribute to our work?