B of A Boosts CEO’s Pay, Plans Stock Split

BankAmerica Corp. paid Chief Executive David Coulter $3.54 million in salary and bonus last year, almost double his 1995 pay. The third-largest U.S. bank also proposed a 2-for-1 stock split for shareholder approval. Coulter, 49, got a 49% raise in 1996 to $791,667, while his bonus more than doubled to $2.75 million in his first full year as chief executive. San Francisco-based BankAmerica, which is in the process of cutting 3,700 jobs, paid Coulter almost as much in long-term compensation. That includes $1.4 million in payments from so-called performance share units, which are tied to the bank’s stock price, and 125,000 stock options valued by BankAmerica at $2.08 million. The bank said most of Coulter’s pay was tied to the company’s performance, according to the annual proxy statement. BankAmerica noted that last year its stock surged more than 50%. In the proxy, BankAmerica said it wants to increase the number of common shares outstanding to 1.4 million from 700 million so it can split its shares.