Bank of America BAC.N shareholders voted on Tuesday to approve pay packages for CEO Brian Moynihan and the lender’s top executives, and also elected its 14 directors on the board.
Proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services had recommended that investors vote against the payouts, expressing concerns about the process used to set the compensation.
Moynihan earned $35 million for last year, an increase of roughly 21%. The company’s board credited him with growing its net income 2.3% last year and boosting revenue 3.4%.
On U.S. plans to impose tariffs on trading partners, Moynihan said any impact on the bank will be indirect – on how a trade war affects the economy.More executive payouts: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay rises after record profitNeed a break
“The impact on our bank will be through the economic impact of a trade war… so if you believe that consumption falls and that results in reductions in force of employees and unemployment rate would go up,” he said.
The administration of President Donald Trump earlier this month announced, then paused, sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, throwing the global economy into a state of uncertainty.
Moynihan reiterated that the bank’s economic team does not see a recession this year, but expects the Federal Reserve will not cut interest rates because inflation is sticky.
Regarding a question about the risk of Trump sacking Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the CEO said an independent central bank is one of the important things about U.S. consistency.
Trump stepped up his criticism of Fed Chair Powell for not cutting interest rates, calling him a “major loser”, in a social media post on Monday, which raised concerns about the president’s influence over the central bank.
BofA’s shareholders also voted on other management proposals, but rejected all individual shareholder proposals.
These individual proposals included a request to the board to annually report on the alignment of its lobbying and policy influence activities with regard to its 2030 sectoral emissions reduction and 2050 net zero targets.
BofA had joined other major U.S. banks to leave the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, one of the world’s top banking sector climate coalitions in recent months.
