Bank of America chief gets a 23 percent pay raise

Bank of America awarded chief executive Brian T. Moynihan $16 million for his work last year, increasing his potential compensation by 23 percent. Moynihan received $14.5 million in stock grants for 2015 and left his salary unchanged at $1.5 million, according to a regulatory filing Friday. A year earlier, the Charlottebased bank, the second largest in the United States, gave the chief executive a $13 million pay package.

Moynihan, 56, survived a battle with investors in 2015 over whether he should be stripped of his role as chairman as the bank's stock lagged behind those of its peers. The company also wrangled with regulators, as it was forced to resubmit its capital plan under the Federal Reserve's annual stress test.

Moynihan slashed expenses by 24 percent last year, partly by putting some of the bank's biggest legal woes behind it. Bank of America shares slid 5.9 percent in 2015, trailing the 3.5 percent drop of the 90-company Standard & Poor's 500 Financials Index.

Half of what the bank granted Moynihan for 2015 is in the form of stock linked to performance over a three-year period through 2018, according to the filing. For Moynihan to receive the full value, Bank of America must meet "growth goals" for return on assets and adjustable tangible book value during those years.

Executives of some other major Wall Street banks saw their compensation for 2015 reduced as they contended with missed financial targets and waning stock prices. Morgan Stanley cut chief executive James Gorman's pay last month by 6.7 percent, to $21 million, while the Goldman Sachs Group reduced chairman and chief executive Lloyd C. Blankfein's by 4.2 percent, to $23 million. Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, saw his pay boosted 35 percent, to $27 million.

Moynihan, an Ohio-born lawyer who rose through the ranks at FleetBoston Financial before Bank of America bought it, outlasted other exec- utives in late 2009 as talks fell apart with CEO candidates from firms including Bank of New York Mellon. He gained the chairman title in October 2014 after spending much of his time as chief executive dealing with the fallout from his predecessor's acquisitions of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial. Bank of America stock rose 7 percent in regular trading Friday, amid a broad stock rally. But the stock is down about 29 percent, year to date.