WaMu CEO gets $7.5 million bonus, stock options
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Washington Mutual Inc has awarded new Chief Executive Alan Fishman a $1 million salary, a $7.5 million signing bonus, and stock options and restricted stock to induce him to join the largest U.S. savings and loan as it struggles with mortgage losses.
In a Thursday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Seattle-based thrift said Fishman would receive a target annual bonus equal to 365 percent of his base salary starting in 2009. He would also receive 5 million stock options and 612,500 restricted shares, whose vesting would take place over time and depend on the thrift's stock price.
Fishman would also be eligible for long-term incentive awards, including a minimum $8 million in 2009 if he remained chief executive all year, the filing shows.
Washington Mutual announced Fishman's hiring on Monday. He replaced the ousted Kerry Killinger, who had run the thrift since 1990.
Many analysts have said Washington Mutual may need a buyer or new capital because of mortgage losses that the thrift has said could reach $19 billion through 2011. Washington Mutual lost $3.33 billion in the second quarter.
Before joining Washington Mutual, Fishman had been chairman of mortgage broker Meridian Capital Group. He was also a former chief operating officer of Sovereign Bancorp Inc, and a former chief executive of Brooklyn, New York's Independence Community Bank Corp, which Sovereign bought in 2006.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Gary Hill)
