The past year was miserable for bank executives, who watched their stocks plummet. 

The biggest loser, as we've noted, was Bank of America. It fell 58 percent on the year. According to Bloomberg, the decline "erased almost $80 billion of shareholder value at Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America. It's the firm's largest drop since a 66 percent plunge in 2008, when a U.S. bailout staved off a collapse. The bank also ended 2011 last in the Standard & Poor's 500 Financials Index and the KBW Bank Index."

Other banks have little reason to feel good about Bank of America's demise. Citigroup fell 44 percent on the year,  JPMorgan Chase fell 22 percent and Goldman Sachs fell 46 percent. Shareholders aren't exactly fed up, as they get the extreme challenges in the industry. And they've unfortunately become somewhat accustomed to these sorts of volatile drops in bank stocks. The real angst stems from the fact that there's not a lot of reason for optimism for 2012.

With that said, for bank executives and employees, there's a silver lining. Many will receive stock options at very low strike prices. Low prices may also encourage compensation committees to hand out more shares of restricted stock. So there would appear to be lots of upside, but only if the stock recovers. At Bank of America, the stock plunged 66 percent in 2008. Executives were also given lots of stock options and restricted stocks. It hasn't really worked out well for most executives who stayed on until now, as the stock is right back to the near-nadir.

For more:
- here's the article on financial stocks
- here's a Deal Journal look at Bank of America and financial stocks, entitled "Born Losers" 

Related articles:
Citigroup: Worst performing big bank stock   
Bank of America capital efforts weigh on stock   
Commentary: Bank of America outlook remains dismal