Banks, Year-end Bonuses | featured news

Big shareholders at Goldman Sachs have asked the U.S.

A top executive at troubled insurer AIG publicly resigns and says he will donate his entire bonus to charity.

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said 15 of the top 20 bonus recipients in A.I.G.’s financial products division had returned their bonuses.

Documents turned over to the Connecticut attorney general show that American International Group Inc paid out over $218 million in bonuses, more than the previously disclosed $165 million, published reports said on Saturday.

An alarmed industry tells Congress, White House that severe pay restrictions would punish many for the sins of a few and hurt broader economy.

Democrats and Republicans tried to outdo one another in voicing indignation as the House debated a bill to punish A.I.G. executives who got big bonuses.

Fannie Mae is due to pay retention bonuses of as much $470,000 to $611,000 this year to some executives despite enormous losses. Freddie Mac also plans to pay such bonuses but hasn't yet provided details.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is not a lawyer, nor does he play one on TV. So when just about every question at Tuesday's afternoon briefing concerned bonuses at insurance giant AIG, Gibbs had a non-answer at the ready. "I'm not a contracts lawyer," he said at one point, later explaining that he was "not a contract lawyer," either. When asked whether the president could simply deny more money to AIG unless it scrapped bonuses, he repeated: "Again, I'd refer you to a contract lawyer, which I'm not one."

Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis is about to come under serious scrutiny by Congress.

After selling a majority stake in Miami-based City National Bancshares last November, $60 million of the proceeds, out of his own pocket, got handed out to his tellers, bookkeepers, clerks--everyone on the payroll. All 399 workers on the staff received bonuses, and he even tracked down 72 former employees to give them bonuses.