Citigroup's Pandit gets $30 mn bonus

Citigroup has awarded its newly-appointed CEO Vikram Pandit stocks worth $30 million, even as the India-born executive has decided to forgo a cash bonus at the crisis-ridden bank.

The 1.1 million share units and options for additional 3 million shares being awarded to Pandit are estimated to be worth around $30 million (Rs 120 crore) -- an amount close to six times of total compensation paid by all the Indian banks together to their top executives last fiscal.

Nagpur-born Pandit was yesterday awarded the Padma Bhushan by the government of India. 

The stock and options award was disclosed by Citigroup in a regulatory filing here late last week. This is higher than the total bonus worth $23.9 million given to previous CEO Charles Prince last year. Prince got $10.7 million in stock and $13.2 million in cash bonus.

The salary paid to Pandit, who took charge of Citigroup in December 2007 after Prince resigned amid mounting subprime crisis-related losses, is not known as yet. However, Prince got an annual pay package of around $26 million (around Rs 100 crore).

In comparison, more than 500 top executives and board members at India's public and private sector banks together received an annual compensation of about Rs 20 crore last fiscal.

K V Kamath, managing director and CEO, ICICI Bank, the top paid banker in India, took home around Rs 2.61 crore.

Just around 10 top bankers in India got their salary in crores last fiscal, according to data disclosed in their annual reports.