It's that time of the year. More banks will be disclosing fairly soon how much they will pay their CEOs. We're in for a wide range of bonus numbers.

Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup (C), has already revealed that he will not get a bonus for 2009. Furthermore, he'll take a salary of just $1 until the bank is profitable again. On the other end of the spectrum is Morgan Stanley (MS) CEO James Gorman. The New York Times notes he will receive $8.11 million in deferred stock as part of his bonus for 2009 as well as a deferred cash--cash!--bonus. That bonus has not yet been detailed, but the proxy will likely shed light on it. This would be standard news if it weren't for the pay controversy that's now raging.

To be sure, a new CEO deserves incentives. But this merely stokes the debate about how well stock--even if deferred--really incents top executives. It will be interesting to see what Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein gets. It will likely be massive. My bet is that he will give a good chunk of it to a good cause. We'll perhaps see much of it deferred. He's got to do something.

For more:
- here's the article

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