BOSTON, March 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents show FleetBoston Financial's top officers awarded themselves $32 million for merging with Bank of America.
And the executives, including Chief Executive Charles K. Gifford and President Eugene McQuade, got another $23 million in stock grants last month, according to the company's 10-K annual report filed Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Three of the executives, McQuade, Chief Administrative Officer H. Jay Sarles and Executive Vice President Brian T. Moynihan are getting severance payments currently valued at about $20 million whenever they leave Bank of America, where they all will have high-level jobs.
The severance payments -- half to be awarded in Bank of America stock and the other half in a deferred-compensation cash account that will collect interest -- now have an estimated value of $7.85 million for McQuade, who will be president of Bank of America.
Executives at the Boston bank negotiated separate severance agreements with Bank of America, under which they will receive two times their annual salaries and the highest annual bonus if they lose their jobs.
