Douglas Glenn, executive vice president and general counsel for Hampton Roads Bankshares, said the payments "were not bonuses in any way, shape or form," but compensation for signing the employment agreements.
Bonuses, awards, "consideration" -- executive pay and perks are a burning issue for shareholders, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Shareholder activists are preparing to push limits on executive compensation far stricter than what the Treasury has built into its TARP program.
The prevalence of executive bonuses among bailed-out banks isn't yet clear, say experts. Nell Minow, co-founder of the independent research group the Corporate Library, says banks don't report typical executive bonuses – awarded at years' end – until March or April at the earliest. And even then, says Michelle Leder of footnoted.org, they will only be required to report bonuses for their top five officers.
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