Financial industry CEOs earn more as shareholder returns fall

CEOs of financial services companies saw their compensation rise last year by nearly as much as the shareholder returns of their companies fell.

That’s according to an analysis this week by ISS Corporate Solutions, which examined the pay reported for chief executive officers on proxy filings between Oct. 1, 2022, and April 18 for 337 S&P 500 companies in all industry sectors. Across all of those companies and industries, median CEO pay rose 3.1% last year, down from the 13.2% increase in 2021.

Among financial services companies, the median growth in CEO compensation was 12.9%, according to ICS. During the year, the median total shareholder return at those companies went down by 16.2%. READ MORE