CHARLOTTE, N.C. - First Union Corp. cut chairman and chief executive officer Edward Crutchfield's compensation by 40% last year and didn't award any of its top executives a bonus.
Mr. Crutchfield, who will hand the CEO title to president Ken Thompson at the bank's annual meeting next month so he can undergo cancer treatment, took home $8.77 million in 1999, down from $14.6 million in 1998, according to the company's proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The 58-year-old CEO of the sixth-largest U.S. banking company wasn't given a bonus. In 1998 he had a bonus of $2.28 million. Six other executives, including Mr. Thompson, also didn't receive any bonuses.
The stock sank 46% last year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 20% and the S&P money-center index - which includes First Union, Bank of America Corp., Chase Manhattan Corp., and J.P. Morgan & Co. - declined just 14%.
First Union disappointed investors last year by cutting its earnings forecast three times, as it struggled to digest its based CoreStates Financial Corp. Under Crutchfield, the bank has made 80 acquisitions in 12 years.
Mr. Crutchfield also received a restricted stock award of $2.36 million and 257,843 options, valued at $3.68 million. In addition, he received $1.13 million from the company's long-term incentive plan and $426,575 in other compensation, including life insurance and other benefits.
Mr. Crutchfield, who joined First Union in 1965 as a 23-year-old bond trader and has been running the bank since 1984, will remain chairman until at least Dec. 31, 2001.
Meanwhile, U.S. Bancorp said its performance last year "fell short of the company's aggressive objectives" and cut its chief executive's bonus in half.
The company's proxy, filed Monday, shows that chairman and CEO John F. Grundhofer was paid $895,003 in salary, got a $750,000 bonus, and received $171,417 in other compensation, for a total package worth $1,816,420 before stock options. In 1998 Mr. Grundhofer had received a $1.5 million bonus.
-Bloomberg News and Dow Jones
