From the
USA Today:
The profit at SunTrust Banks last year was half of what it was in 2007. The stock price was also cut
in half, but the company's board of directors approved a 75% increase
in the 2008 total compensation of CEO James Wells to $8.1 million,
according to the SunTrust proxy filed late Monday with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
Even better, though SunTrust is in much better shape than many other banks,
it has also received some bailout money.
A company spokesperson responded by saying that the company's proxy statement overstates the value of Wells' compensation because of the vast drop since then in SunTrust's stock price - which is true but
doesn't explain the 7.7% increase in Wells' cash salary in 2008.