James P. Gorman, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley, had his base salary almost doubled in 2012, but his overall pay package was down, according to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The C.E.O. made $9.75 million in 2012, down 7 percent from the year before. The firm had previously disclosed pieces of Mr. Gorman’s pay and on Thursday said that his base salary rose by $700,000, to $1.5 million, or $28,846.15 a week. He was also granted performance-based stock compensation valued at almost $3.75 million.
The firm’s board said in the filing that Mr. Gorman’s base salary was raied to bring it in line with the salaries of other bank chiefs. The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, for instance, makes a base salary of $2 million, or $38,641.54 a week.
Base salaries across Wall Street rose sharply after the financial crisis. Traders and bankers have historically been paid a relatively small base salary and a big one-time bonus based on their financial performance. Regulators, however, have argued that this type of pay system gives employees incentives to take unnecessary risks and have pushed banks to increase the amount of fixed compensation.
Still, Mr. Gorman’s bump in base pay didn’t translate into a rai! se overall. C. Robert Kidder, the board’s lead independent director, said in the filing that “2012 was a transition year or Morgan Stanley, and management along with much of the organization saw reduced compensation.†Still, he said the board is “confident†in Mr. Gorman’s strategic plan.
Morgan Stanley was badly bruised during the financial crisis and Mr. Gorman, who took over as chief executive in 2010, had been working hard to reduce the firm’s risk profile, slimming down divisions like fixed income and building out steadier units like wealth management.
The board also increased the base salaries of Mr. Gorman’s top deputies. Gregory J. Fleming, who leads the firm’s wealth management division, and Colm Kelleher, who runs institutional securities, now make a base salary of $1 million, or $19,230.77 a week, as do all members of the firm’s operating committee. Last year the pair made a base of roughly $750,000 each.
So far the company has disclosed compensation for hese two men valued at $6.4 million. It is expected the pair will also be awarded deferred cash. The total value of their compensation won’t be known until later this year, but it will be lower than last year, according to a person briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak on the record.
