And the hypocrisy just keeps on flowing... Fannie plans bonuses of up to $611K for 4 execs Fannie plans bonuses of up to $611K for 4 execs Fannie Mae plans bonuses of up to $611,000 for 4 executives; Freddie Mac has similar plans Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer Wednesday March 18, 2009, 2:09 pm EDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fannie Mae is planning to pay retention bonuses of as much as $611,000 each to several top executives of the government-controlled mortgage finance titan. Sibling company Freddie Mac is planning similar awards. Fannie Mae disclosed in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it's planning bonuses of $470,000 to $611,000 for four top executives, on top of their base salaries this year. Freddie Mac has a similar retention plan in place, but has yet to disclose how much money top executives are in line to receive. Both companies were seized by federal regulators last fall. Fannie has requested $15.2 billion in government aid, while Freddie has asked for nearly $31 billion in additional aid on top of the $13.8 billion it received last year.
Nope, should stop that immediatly, and if they want to leave....tell them to go ahead and find another job. DD
I don't understand the fear of people leaving these companies. If they screwed the company up, keeping them there shouldn't be the biggest priority. I agree with you.
The retention bonuses I am familiar with are of the form: If you take X salary for one year and commit to stay with the company for one year, then you will receive a bonus of Y dollars in one year. So in essence, they agree to the bonus in (for example) March, 2008 and provided they stay with the company for 12 months, then they will receive their bonus around April 2009.
Fannie Mae brought in a new management team last fall to clean up the mess - if these bonuses are for that team, I don't see it as being excessive.
I do..... I have no issue if they get bonuses based upon company performance, but it should be paid out over time.....to ensure it is not some period of faux profitability. DD
Generally retention bonuses have nothing to do with profitablity. You take less of a salary and in return you get a bonus, providing you live up to the terms of the retention agreement, which usually involves not quitting or being fired over a period of time.
I think in this economy someone won't take a job because they won't get more than half a million dollars for leading something to failure, then there is a problem. People are nervous about jobs, and many are out of work already. If an executive with a track record of failure quits because he didn't get rewarded in excess of half a million dollars for that failure, he's going to have a tough time finding any job that will be a fit. The old system of giving the bonuses obviously didn't attract competent folks, so better to make someone actually earn the bonus with results. If it is for the executives who have been cleaning up the old mess, then they have earned their bonus and I don't have a problem with it.
is this a joke? there have been 4 and a half million people laid off since the recession began. you're telling me there aren't a thousand competence folks?
As SamFisher mentioned, FannieMae already has a new team, so they haven't had a chance to fail yet. People who are qualified to be executives for giant corporations like Fannie Mae are not nervous about jobs. They have the qualifications to get good jobs. And, they have the money to spend the recession at the country club if they need or want to. Of all the millions of people laid off so far, I think not many of them have the resume to get any consideration for Fannie Mae exec. And those that do have the resume for it will want compensation similar to this. And, I would hazard to guess that there is a system to pay these guys millions on performance metrics too. This is just salary.
Wait, sorry, these are retention bonuses? I see...so they are just salary paid out as part of their deal. I retract my earlier comments. DD
If their "qualifications" and resume include driving megacorporations into the ground, I don't think they reallly do have the qualifications to get good jobs. Also some of these guys go bankrupt as well from bad investments and crazy spending. Not all of them but it does happen.
You keep saying this. What if their "qualifications" don't include driving megacorporations into the ground? The witchhunt is getting a little out of control.
That's why I said "if" I also said in the initial response to your post that if they were rewarding the new people who cleaned up Fannie and Freddy, they earned their bonuses and it shouldn't be a problem. I don't think all executives are evil people who deserve punishment or anything like that. It's just for too long some executives who have done a poor job would still get astronomical bonuses. That's what I'm against.
