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Lean for Lehman

Wall Street C.E.O.'s are giving up bonuses.
Dick Fuld

Batten down the hatches: More Wall Street executives are saying they will give up their bonuses.

In the wake of losses sustained in the credit crunch, John Mack of Morgan Stanley gave up his 2007 bonus, as did top executives of Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch.

Lately, Lehman Brothers has been the Street's problem child, and Yalman Onaran of Bloomberg News reports that its C.E.O., Richard Fuld, and its president, Herbert (Bart) McDade, told the firm's managing directors this week that they will forgo 2008 bonuses.

The bonus is typically the majority of a Wall Street professional's annual compensation. But these are hard times, with credit markets mired and with deals and offerings chilled.

"I'd be surprised if other C.E.O.'s didn't give up their bonuses this year," Jeanne Branthover, the New York-based head of the financial-services practice at Boyden Global Executive Search, told Bloomberg.

Don't shed any tears for Fuld, however. The chief executive received $40 million last year, and nearly all of that was a bonus. Allan Sloan in Fortune recently calculated that Fuld has gained nearly $500 million from stock options and restricted stock awards since Lehman was spun off from American Express in 1994.


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