- Key insight: The CEOs of JPMorganChase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Capital One each received compensation of at least $40 million in 2025.
- Supporting data: Of the four chief executives, Wells' leader Charlie Scharf received the highest year-over-year increase at 28%. His 2025 pay package totaled $40 million.
- Forward look: The latest pay details for the CEOs of Citi, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are expected to be available soon.
Compensation packages for the chief executives at four large U.S. banks soared to $40 million or more in 2025, reflecting competitive dynamics and a year of robust financial performance.
To date, four of the biggest banks have disclosed details about their CEO pay packages last year. All four of the chief executives — Jamie Dimon of
Shaun Bisman, a partner at the consulting firm Compensation Advisory Partners, said $40 million appears to be the new benchmark for big-bank CEOs.
Last year, the same four executives' pay packages were
Strong financial outcomes drove some of the upticks in pay. But they were also likely the result of market dynamics, including jumps in stock prices, and peer benchmarking, Bisman said.
"Boards may be feeling pressure to offer competitive pay packages," he said.
What follows is an overview of the 2025 pay packages for each of the four CEOs. It's based on the banks' regulatory filings as well as an analysis by Compensation Advisory Partners.
Other big banks, including Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley, are expected to disclose similar CEO pay information soon. Regional banks will do the same in the coming weeks.
The CEOs are listed in order of the size of their pay raises, from largest to smallest.
Charlie Scharf, Wells Fargo
2024 total compensation: $31.2 million
2025 total compensation: $40 million
Change: +28.2%
The 28% year-over-year increase reflected his "strong leadership" last year, according to a recent securities filing. The compensation package included a base salary of $2.5 million, unchanged since 2019, when Scharf was hired to lead Wells' recovery following its 2016 fraudulent-accounts scandal.
It also included total variable compensation of $37.5 million, up from $28.7 million in 2024.
More than $9 million of Scharf's compensation was delivered in the form of a cash bonus, topping his 2024 cash bonus by $2.2 million, according to the filing. The remaining $28 million of variable compensation was awarded in the form of long-term equity — roughly 65% of it was in performance share awards, while the rest of it came as restricted share rights awards.
In June, the Federal Reserve
Wells' board also credited Scharf, who
The board also said that, under Scharf's leadership, Wells is "beginning to realize the benefits from a multiyear investment strategy," which is evident in "stronger new account growth, higher deposit and loan balances [and] increased market share across many … businesses."
Scharf's pay increase isn't the first time in the past year that he's been rewarded for his leadership. In July 2025,
David Solomon, Goldman Sachs
2024 total compensation: $39 million
2025 total compensation: $47 million
Change: +20.51%
Solomon, the head of
In 2025, the
Solomon's compensation included $31.5 million in performance-based stock units, up from $25.9 million in such awards the prior year, and $3.4 million in carried interest, a type of compensation that's often paid out at asset management and alternative investment firms.
The $1.8 trillion-asset bank based its compensation decision on several factors, starting with "continued and significant shareholder value creation during 2025," including a 33% increase in the quarterly dividend, it said in a securities filing.
Richard Fairbank, Capital One Financial
2024 total compensation: $33.5 million
2025 total compensation: $40 million
Change: +19.4%
In 2024, Fairbank's total direct compensation rose by more than 15%. The following year, McLean, Virginia-based Capital One
The $40 million package, more than half of which was made up of performance-based share awards, climbed 19% year over year, according to a recent securities filing. In addition to the performance-based share awards, which were valued at $24.8 million, Fairbank's pay package included a deferred cash bonus of $6.7 million that can't be paid out until early 2029 and a total of $8.5 million worth of restricted share units, according to the filing.
Similar to the past several years, Fairbank's 2025 pay package did not include a cash salary.
Capital One's acquisition of Discover closed in May 2025. The deal
Capital One did not mention the acquisition in its filing, and it did not provide details about the rationale for Fairbank's pay increase, except to say that it was determined "after evaluating the company's performance in 2025." For the full year, the $669 billion-asset bank reported net income of $2.5 billion, down 48% year over year, due to
Still, Capital One's stock price rose by around 37% over the course of 2025.
Jamie Dimon, JPMorganChase
2024 total compensation: $39 million
2025 total compensation: $43 million
Change: +10.26%
Dimon, the longtime leader of
Dimon was also granted $36.5 million in performance share units, which tied all of his annual equity-based compensation to performance metrics, the bank said in a securities filing.
"This significant weighting of pay mix to equity is designed to align with shareholders' interests by encouraging continued focus on the long-term success of the firm," the bank said in the filing.
The latest pay package "reflects Mr. Dimon's stewardship of the firm," the bank said, pointing to "strong performance" across business lines and "a fortress balance sheet. It's also the result of "the competitive environment," as well as Dimon's "continued development of top executives to lead for today and the future [and] his continued commitment to shareholders."
For 2025,
