Jane Fraser Tops the List with a $34 Million Salary at Citigroup: CEO Salaries in Major US Banks See Significant Increases in 2024.

Jane Fraser Image By Reuters

Year after year, the salaries of CEOs of American companies, especially Wall Street companies, double. In the latest census of the salaries of the heads of major banks for the year 2024, there were large increases in the salaries of the heads of major banks as a result of the strong performance of the financial sector. At the top of the list that witnessed the largest increases in salaries was Ms. Jane Fraser of Citigroup, as her salary increased by a third to $34 million. This woman, who assumed her position in March 2021, achieved record results for the bank. David Solomon of Goldman Sachs and Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan received the highest compensation at $39 million each. Brian Moynihan of Bank of America recorded $35 million, Ted Beck of Morgan Stanley received $34 million in his first year, and the lowest compensation was for Charles Scharf of Wells at $31 million. Ms. Fraser’s compensation increased from $26 million in 2023 due to the Board of Directors’ confidence in her leadership, as Citigroup’s shares outperformed its competitors with a 20% increase in shares in 2024 after a 37% growth in 2023. Ms. Fraser reorganized some of the bank’s main divisions, such as services, banking services, wealth markets, and personal banking services, which made Citigroup’s revenues reach $81 billion in 2024. These revenues made the Board of Directors support increasing her financial compensation. Stock-based incentives make up the bulk of CEO compensation in the United States and are not paid in cash. Ms. Fraser receives a fixed annual income of $1.5 million, a cash bonus of $4.5 million, and $11.55 million in deferred stock that vests over four years, subject to the achievement of specific bank targets. Her other salary increases are tied to metrics set by shareholders, which means they are closely tied to company performance. These incentives have helped motivate CEOs to achieve long-term results and maintain their gains year after year.

While some banks, such as Wells Fargo, have imposed regulatory restrictions on the salaries and compensation of their CEO Charles Scharf, due to the fake accounts scandal that dates back more than a decade, which has negatively affected Mr. Scharf’s compensation and incentives.

The compensation offered to CEOs of major American banks varies according to their professional successes, performance and the revenues achieved by the banks they lead, as the financial performance of some banks such as Citigroup and JP Morgan has improved, while Wells Fargo and other banks have faltered.

In recent years, interest rate hike policies have supported the performance of major banks due to the desire of individuals and companies to deposit their money to achieve financial returns with large interest rates that reached 5% annually. With Mr. Trump’s arrival to the presidency of the United States of America, he gave hope to many to enhance business and open branches of global companies inside the country through many internal investments in the United States of America, which means large waves of borrowing from American banks, which necessarily means an increase in the revenues of these banks and thus an increase in their profitability and a rise in their shares, which directly affects the compensation and wages received by the CEOs of these banks.