Even though the majority of the top firms on Wall Street did not perform well in 2011, their chief executives enjoyed a collective 20% raise.

 

As part of its annual ranking of top salaries, Bloomberg Markets found the compensation of CEOs of the 50 biggest financial companies increased 20.4% in 2011—“a year when most big banks and brokerages saw their revenues, profits and stock prices plummet,” according to Bloomberg News. In fact, 33 of the top 50 had negative share returns in fiscal year 2011.

 

The highest paid executive was Henry Kravis, head of the buyout company KKR, who earned $30 million.

 

Second on the list was George Roberts, Kravis’ cousin and co-chief executive officer, who made $29.9 million. Kravis and Roberts also gathered in another $64.2 million each in dividends and other distributions from companies owned by KKR.

 

Rounding out the top five were John Strangfeld, CEO of Prudential Financial ($23.7 million), Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase ($23.1 million) and Kenneth Chenault of American Express ($23 million).

 

Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone Group, another private equity company, only ranked 48th on the Bloomberg Markets table, but actually received $148.5 million when dividends and distributions were added to pay.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Wall Street CEO Pay Rises 20% with KKR’s Kravis No. 1 (by Laura Marcinek and Nikolaj Gammeltoft, Bloomberg News)

The Top 50 (Bloomberg) (pdf)