Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf tops bank pay list with $22.9 million

And the winner of this year’s banker bonanza award is ...

John G. Stumpf, chief executive of San Francisco’s Wells Fargo & Co., with a 2012 compensation package totaling $22.87 million.

Stumpf’s pay package, disclosed Thursday afternoon, was 15% higher than in 2011. Wells said the increase was merited because of the bank’s strong showing in 2012. It earned $18.9 billion, up 19% from 2011, during a year in which big banks collectively turned in near-record profits.

The runner-up was $21 million, a 75% increase, for Lloyd C. Blankfein, CEO of New York’s Goldman Sachs Group, whose pay has been notably lofty over the years.

In 2007, Blankfein’s bonus alone was $67.9 million -- an example of what critics said was Wall Street rewarding short-term risk-taking, a practice that helped cause the financial crisis.

“If you get it all at once, you don’t really care what happens down the line,” said Paul Hodgson, an independent governance analyst. He said U.S. bank pay practices have improved -- slightly -- since the crisis, with a portion of CEO pay typically pegged to results over a three-year period.

Other CEO compensation packages:

Bank of America Corp. rewarded Brian T. Moynihan with $12.1 million, up 71%, as the bank’s stock jumped 109% on the year.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon, the 2011 champ at $23 million, had his compensation sliced in half to $11.5 million despite Chase’s record profit of $23.1 billion. The reason, of course, was the “London whale” derivatives trading debacle that cost the bank more than $6 billion.

Citigroup Inc.’s CEO Vikram Pandit received $6.7 million during a year that ended early when the board gave him the boot in October. Citi’s directors welcomed Pandit’s successor, Michael Corbat, with an $11.5-million handshake.

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