No Bonuses for Citi's Top Bosses

It’s official. Vikram Pandit, Citigroup’s CEO, has sent a memo to staff saying neither he nor Win Bischoff, the bank’s chairman, will be receiving end-of-year bonuses. In a separate announcement, former US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, whose role in deregulating the banking industry has been blamed for the financial disaster still unfolding, said he, too, would forgo a bonus this year. He has taken home $119 million since joining the bank in 1999. This doesn’t mean other top executives in the bank won’t get a bonus, though the terms of the Treasury rescue stipulate that all top executive compensation must be approved by the government. In those circumstances, Pandit is only bowing to the inevitable. A bonus for him, Bischoff, and Rubin would have been vetoed. All top bankers have now ruled out bonuses for themselves, with the exception of two notable holdouts: Kenneth D. Lewis of Bank of America and John Stumpf of Wells Fargo.