Citigroup's CEO Vikram Pandit to take a $1 salary and no bonus

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said he will take a salary of $1 and no bonus until the bank, which has accepted $45 billion in government bailout money, returns to profitability.

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People are quick to bash bankers and CEOs as elitist thieves who plundered the US taxpayer, after taking excessive risk and unjustly rewarding themselves with massive bonuses. To a great extent, this criticism is spot on.

However some people also claim that the CEOs took golden eggs before slaying the goose... ie they took as much as they could before plunging the company off a cliff deliberately. I disagree with this, and I believe they made a genuine error; no doubt exacerbated by Greenspan and Clinton's pushing of CDOs and sub-prime respectively.

Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citigroup has agreed to work for the next 3 year at a rate of $1 a year, with no bonus. In other words, he's working for free to try and rectify his mistake. It would be far easier for him to simply walk away and enjoy his life, would it not? If that were his motive, he would have just moved to the Bahamas already.

As I've said through this crisis, its the industry that was corrupt and defunct; not the executives.

Question. How could he work for a dollar a year and survive if he hadn't already plumbed the money out of his company? He should have been doing this BEFORE the bailout...you know...when it mattered.

I watched most of the hearings yesterday and found a lot of it compelling. Although I did come away thinking that the only 2 people up there who deserved to hold onto their jobs were Vikram Pandit who not only, only joined citi recently but has already taken the steps he has made and Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co who from all appearances was already running JP pretty conservatively leading up to the meltdown.

Of those 2 Vikram was the only one who came across with any real vision. maybe, just maybe not all bankers are the same?

reply to post by Slowpoke


JP Morgan owns 80% of the world's derivatives and in doing so is in full control of the world's markets. Easy to sell high and buy low when you can manipulate so much. The sub-primes were not the cause of the meltdown despite the media propaganda campaigns, it was caused by derivatives imploding

Midnight: Are you sh**ing me? Who the hell would work for nothing under normal circumstances.

Pandit is rectifying the mistakes not only of his predecessors, but of the entire investment banking industry to date.


Nineteen : Like I said, its the industry not the executives.

Slowpoke: I agree. Lewis was the biggest douchebag, refused to work for no pay until the bank returns to profitability.

reply to post by Nineteen


Actually, some derivatives we based on the housing bubble so when that went, the house of cards financial system started collapsing.

Anyhow, I don't know how people can buy this $1 crap.

This guy probably has assets that earn him money from all over the place. He probably earned millions over the last few years. There are probably stuffed savings accounts all over the world. Many bankers saw this crisis coming and decided to milk the bubble for everything it is worth then save up cash for hard times.

If I earned millions over the last 5 years then all of the sudden took $1 dollar per year for the next 5 years, I still would be much better off than 98% of Americans that are working paycheck to paycheck and suffering enormously from the current economic crisis.

He will probably just live of the millions he has in his bank account already..the poor guy

reply to post by midnightbrigade


1$ dosnt matter or the cash bonus he still gets paid stocks

and makes good money from the stocks so he dosnt even need a pay check or a cash bonus

I'm waiting for Congress to do the same.

They have been squandering our money for years. Let's see their paycuts....oh wait it doesn't matter....so many of them are already millionares anyway so what does that matter.

I always get a kick when they call out others as elites AS IF THEY ARE NOT.

Nobody is saying he is poor... in fact he made $800 million from the sale of his VC company, so he's close to being a billionaire.

You're all missing the point because, as usual, its easy to bash the bankers without thinking about what some of them are doing.

If he's the corrupt elite man you claim he is, then why isnt he walking away now?

(And for the record, he's not getting paid in stock... its $1 salary, no bonus in cash or equities or call options).

Pandit didn't create the mess at Citi... his predecessor did. He's sticking around to clear it up. I find it disheartening to see people still bashing him and holding a grudge because he is rich... has America lost the American dream? Have you all become anti-capitalists?

"The great success of the GOP over the last eight years has been to destroy the reputation of free markets and limited government by deploying its rhetoric and then doing the opposite." - Will Wilkinson