Citigroup CEO's Annual Salary Stays At $1

Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Vikram Pandit will be paid a salary of $1 this year and will get no stock awards as the troubled banking giant shrinks under part-government ownership, according to a regulatory filing late tuesday.

Citi said its compensation committee kept Pandit's annual base salary at $1 and granted him no so-called stock awards for fiscal 2009, the filing said.

The bank's compensation directors did approve an increase in the 2009 annual base salary for Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach to $500,000 from $400,000, as well as for James Forese, co-head of global markets, to $475,000 from $225,000.

The decisions were approved by Kenneth Feinberg, the government's "pay czar" who heads the Office of the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation.

Since the global financial crisis erupted last year, Citigroup has been one of the largest recipients of bailout money through the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. The company is now roughly a third owned by taxpayers. It's been selling many businesses while reorganizing others and will likely end up a much smaller institution.

The government is trying to avoid rewarding failure by limiting executive pay at financial institutions that have been major recipients of bailout money.

Citi's compensation committee granted "stock salary" awards for fiscal-year 2009 to some of the bank's executives. Forese got $5.43 million worth, while Vice Chairman Stephen Volk got $3.4 million and Gerspach was granted stock worth $2.9 million. These awards also were approved by Feinberg, the bank said in its Tuesday filing.

The Citigroup shares awarded to these executives will vest immediately. The stock can be sold in three equal, annual installments starting on Jan. 20, 2011, apart from shares the bank withholds for tax reasons.

If Citi repays its TARP money, each sale can occur one year earlier, the bank disclosed in the filing.