The Next Bailout Recipients?Employees of Bank of America Corp. , Citigroup and Goldman Sachs

[The Straight Story]

The Next Bailout Recipients? Employees of Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup (NYSE: C), and Goldman Sachs (GS)


You have to love, or at the very least, appreciate the irony. The latest victims in the imbroglio over banking compensation are … bank employees.

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Citigroup Inc (C) among others have instituted programs that are creatively instituting financial aid programs that accelerate cash bonus payments that have been deferred as stock.

Both firms are issuing shares that can be sold within months, much sooner than normally allowed. Bank of America is allowing shares to be sold as soon as August. In the case of Citibank, select stock units will be available for sale in April.

Regulators have encouraged a pay deferral period of at least one year.

The practice of issuing stock, as opposed to cash, is one move that many banks are taking to mollify the public anger over the comeback of bank compensation in the light of federal bailouts and the overall economic malaise facing the nation.

However, the new pay culture, is having the ironic consequence of squeezing some bankers who rely on their bonuses to meet hefty mortgage payments or private-school tuition bills – fixed costs that are sensitive when cash is tight.

“I know it sounds ridiculous to Main Street, but it’s a hardship,” says Gary Goldstein, who runs Whitney Group, a financial-services job-search firm in New York.

http://www.americanbankingnews.com/2010/01/29/the-next-bailout-recipients-employees-of-bank-of-america-corp-nyse-bac-citigroup-nyse-c-and-goldman-sachs-gs/

[truedelphi]

1. Like Greg Palast was smart enough to say five yrs ago,

We Americans have the best government that money can buy.

And since the middle class now has no money, and the SCOTUS has said that Corporations can make our elections to be even more like auctions, how will any Real Change proceed?

[dkf]

2. Anyone can live beyond their means.

Looks like actress Britney Murphy was doing so. Michael Jackson was. Anybody can really.

[DJ13]

3. but it’s a hardship

I feel so sorry for them.

LOL

[unabelladonna]

4. i really can't think of anything profound

to say except i really don't give a sh-t about these roaches. i'd be pleased to see their ghastly mcmansions foreclosed and torn down. so many really pretty towns on the north shore of LI (where i lived for many years)have been turned into what look like parking lots and warehouses. many of the old colonials and ranch style homes are demolished and rebuilt as these hideous shoeboxes,i.e. oyster bay cove, LI was once a magnificent area of fine old homes on 2 acre lots....no more. it was (and is) a pet peeve of mine.

[Raschel]

5. Hey Gary, in the words of Phil Gramm, "quit whining".

[depakid]

6. Don't worry, banksters- the administration is there to protect you from the torches and pitchforks