Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit awarded huge pay package

Banking giant Citigroup's Indian-born chief executive Vikram Pandit, who voluntarily opted to work for an annual salary of $1 until the bank returned to profitability, was awarded $16.7 million retention bonus package, plus stock options subject to meeting certain performance goals.

According to a regulatory filing by the New York-based bank yesterday, 54-year old Pandit would get $16.7 million in stock and options as well as a cash payment valued at more than $6.65 million under a profit-sharing programme for top executives.

Pandit will receive the stock in three equal installments at the end of 2013, 2104 and 2015, subject to meeting certain performance goals. The bank also raised his base salary to $1.75 million for 2011.

He will be entitled to the cash payment valued at more than $6.65 million if the bank earns at least $12 billion before taxes in 2011-2012. The bank had made $10.6 billion after taxes in 2010, its first full-year profit since 2007.

Pandit, a Ph.D in finance from Columbia University, took over as CEO in December 2007, and voluntarily to accept $1 per year until the bank returned to profitability.

Citigroup, one of the hardest-hit banks during the financial crisis, also received one of the largest rescue packages under the government's $700-billion Troubled Assets Relief Program bailout fund.