Morgan Stanley paid Ted Pick $34mn for his first year as chief executive, down from what his predecessor James Gorman earned in his final 12 months in the role and less than Wall Street rivals.
The bulk of Pick’s pay is a deferred bonus paid in Morgan Stanley stock.
“The compensation committee based its decision of Mr Pick’s 2024 compensation on its assessment of his outstanding performance, including the successful completion of the leadership transition and the firm’s exceptional financial performance,” Morgan Stanley wrote in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
It is less than the $37mn earned by Gorman last year and also below his immediate banking rivals.
Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon both earned $39mn in 2024. For Dimon, this was an 8 per cent pay rise while Solomon’s compensation was up 26 per cent. Bank of America paid chief executive Brian Moynihan $35mn last year, up about 21 per cent on a year earlier.
It is, however, still a pay bump from the $25mn Pick earned in 2023 when he was co-president and running Morgan Stanley’s investment banking and trading division.
The numbers underscore the wide pay gap between US and European banks. While European banks have yet to disclose their chief executives’ pay for 2024, the compensation at the biggest US banks comfortably eclipses the SFr14.4mn ($15.9mn) earned by UBS boss Sergio Ermotti for 2023, which had made him the best-paid European bank leader.
Pick took over as CEO of Morgan Stanley at the start of last year from Gorman, who had led the bank for 14 years. Morgan Stanley’s profits rose almost 50 per cent in 2024 to $13.4bn, boosted by higher revenues in trading and investment banking.