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No, Please .... Don't Call It a Bonus! It's a 'Retention Award'!

by Karen Hatter | February 12, 2009 at 06:48 am

674 views | 78 Recommendations | 13 comments

While CEOs of eight banks sat before Congress on February 11, 2009, one of the CEOs there from Morgan Stanley, attempting to justify their questionable actions after having received Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money from taxpayers (Please see excellent coverage provided by Pythiian1 here.), an audio tape of James Gorman, co-president of Morgan Stanley, from a week ago, has revealed him informing financial advisers at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup's Smith Barney to expect " .... very generous" retention payments, with which he thought they would be pleased.

It was cautioned not to refer to the 'retention awards' as bonuses.

From the article, Mr. Gorman states on the audio tape:

There will be a retention award. Please do not call it a bonus. It is not a bonus. It is an award. And it recognizes the importance of keeping our team in place as we go through this integration.

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Jordan Yerman

at 07:13 on February 12th, 2009

Retention of their jobs should be the reward! It's those guys' fault that sandwiches were eight bucks on Wall Street... I'm still not over that, never mind the bonuses with lots of zeroes after the ones as their banks fail, and my tax money bails them out...

Pythiian1

at 08:36 on February 12th, 2009

Great catch on this revisionist approach to bonuses, Karen. It's pretty funny watching these guys on TV insisted that "awards" are "different" from bonuses.

Thanks for the referral.

politisite

at 09:52 on February 12th, 2009

I wonder if my wife will be giving me a 'retention bonus' or a performance bonus' on Saturday. It burns me that a mere change in a term can pass muster with congress and the American people. While I disagreed wish the Bush bail out and the current bill. We have to keep oversight like a hawk on these slimy people.

Good, well written, as expected by this writer. Karen is always recommended

politisite

at 09:56 on February 12th, 2009

Oh, I just wanted add one additional thing. I have always been against bonus,when Companies are not bringing in a profit. Here my stock would go down due to a year full of missed targets and the guys at the top get bonus checks. Its like giving you kid a 100.00 for getting a D.

Babel-Fish

at 10:00 on February 12th, 2009

Today's, news actually makes a statement that Morgan Stanley and 7 other banks had good liquidity and did not want the TARP.

It's being returned, in fact some banks refused and had to accept TARP?

caj1

at 10:36 on February 12th, 2009

I agree with Jordan, and I would like to repeat that retention of their jobs should be an award an itself. These bankers deserve just to keep their jobs. Awards? Bonuses? For what--I don't see any evidence, based on the stock market's current and '08 performance.

Amy Judd

at 12:06 on February 12th, 2009

Sneaky...

tikun

at 13:47 on February 12th, 2009

I know of no business I am involved in where you are rewarded even if you fail to deliver. Hmm. Maybe I am in the wrong business.

I also feel that it was a show for the congress with some of the players instrumental in helping this outrageous fraud to be perpetrated out of greed and politics.

Emilio Lizardo

at 15:13 on February 12th, 2009

Heck - they really had me fooled there for a minute ...

Karen Hatter

at 16:50 on February 12th, 2009

Thank you, Everyone! I appreciate your comments and recommendations.

Fred Miller

at 21:33 on February 12th, 2009

No bonus for me, either. All I can look forward to is the occasional bladder retention......

SIC-VITA-EST (not verified)

at 09:39 on February 15th, 2009

Well here we go people!!!!! business as usual....I`ll just take the bailout money wrap it in a different cover and hand it back to myself and staff under a different name...The government is so fucking stupid and yes the will get away with this....these guys are odious ...