Montag highest paid BofA official

Bank of America Corp's investment banking chief Thomas Montag was the company's highest paid executive in 2009, after the company assumed his contract as part of its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, according to the company's proxy filing on Friday.

The bulk of the former Merrill Lynch executive's compensation comes from a $29.31 million (Dh107.6m) restricted stock award, according to the proxy. Montag is currently president of Bank of America's global banking and markets.

Montag received a total of $586,539 in base pay, and $30,423 in all other compensation, according to the proxy.

Montag was the only executive to use a car and driver, which cost $25,000 in 2009.

Montag's large stock award came from an initial contract he agreed to with Merrill Lynch when he joined the firm in May 2008 from Goldman Sachs, months before the bank's purchase of Merrill Lynch was negotiated, according to the proxy statement.

The restricted stock payout for that contract totaled $20 million.

But for Montag and other senior executives, US pay czar Kenneth Feinberg's influence on the bank's practices is evident.

The latest proxy shows new 2009 pay practices tied to the $45bn in government aid the bank received during the global financial crisis. And the aid was repaid in December 2009.

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