WSJ: Citi asks Treasury if it can pay bonuses

[ShockediSay]

Source: wsj

Citigroup Inc., which has received $45 billion in federal bailout funds and potentially could have to raise more capital based on "stress test" results, is requesting permission from the Treasury Department to pay out special bonuses to certain workers, The Wall Street Journal said late Tuesday.

Banks that have accepted federal bailout funds are subject to greater government scrutiny and limits on how much they pay their top executives. The restrictions are intended to prevent the outrage that ensued after it was disclosed that insurer American International Group had paid out $165 million in bonuses to employees despite having been bailed out to the tune of more than $180 billion.

But bank employees are chafing at the restrictions, and companies have said the pay caps make them vulnerable to poaching by competitors. Some smaller banks have quickly repaid bailout funds in order to remove themselves from heightened oversight. Several of the biggest bailout recipients -- including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. -- have said they want to repay the government as soon as possible.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/WSJ-Citi-asks-Treasury-if-it-apf-15064229.html

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HELL NO

LET 'M GO

[w4rma]

1. No. They need to be broken up. They should have already declared bankruptcy. (nt)

[valerief]

2. Good Lord, have they no shame? nt

[ShockediSay]

15. Wall St Welfare for those losers w/ a talent for disappearing money

funded by taxpayers

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE WRONG!?!?!

[Zuiderelle]

3. "vulnerable to poaching"... what an interesting way to put it.

[Wizard777]

4. Hell No! Is "Bonus" code for Heroin? They're acting like junkies.

Oh please please please let us have our fix. We're sick.

[Wizard777]

5. Apparently the most addictive substance known to man is neither heroin nor nicotine. It's money!

Which is also the root of all evil. That explains a lot about the world we live in today.

[xchrom]

6. no. nt

[brentspeak]

7. Citi isn't even lending money to its customers

So how the hell do they think they deserve a bonus of any kind?

[GetTheRightVote]

8. Are they all nuts, you are right they are like drug traffickers, my god

like the dogs out already. They all need to be put in a pin some where away from the regular population.

:kick:

[MasonJar]

9. Geithner had better draw the line here (after all what does he care--it isn't Goldman Sachs)

If he allows them to give out bonuses when it is already big news that they are going to need more money, he needs to be waterboarded by W himself.

[Doctor_J]

10. Treasury: Piss up a rope

god, I hate these people

[Mz Pip]

11. No

People are still losing their jobs at Citi. Why the execs should be rewarded is beyond me.

[No Elephants]

12. Gee, what are the odds that these overpaid folks can be replaced at half the money in this

economy? Pretty good, I think.

[Vidar]

13. Hell no! Let them go jobhunting to the failed bank down the road.

[OhioChick]

14. Hell No. Screw Them! n/t

[DebbieCDC]

16. Did they use the TARP money to buy crack?

Obviously that's what they're smoking

[pinniped]

17. I could use some post-stress test cash.

.

[DisgustedTX]

18. Not as it seems.

'Citigroup's bonus plans could include a scenario in which payouts would consist mainly of stock which would vest over at least three years, and the awards would likely be worth at least half of an employee's cumulative pay over the past three years, the Wall Street Journal reported.'

They're doing the politically correct things:

1) Asking first - not granting and giving two middle fingers to the taxpayer
2) Mostly stock options - which would have to be held at least three years - not huge cash payouts

Doesn't look much different from most other companies if you look at it realistically and not emotionally.