5 million including 7 million in salary and bonus 3

Finally the time of the major events of contempt on Wall Street bonuses. Thanks the relative "return to normal" in the financial sector, the Obama administration resolved to adopt a firm attitude, but realistic, on the sensitive issue of the remuneration. Dreadful on the supercontrôleur Kenneth Feinberg - which was itself challenged the high-sounding label of "pay" Czar ("pay czar")-, the democratic administration in fact opted for a non-interventionist attitude on the issue, by entrusting to an independent expert review of the first 100 remuneration of the beneficiary companies of federal aid. To date, seven interested companies (Citigroup, AIG, Chrysler, Bank of America, Chrysler Financial, GMAC and General Motors) have already submitted their plans of remuneration to the controller, which has two months to validate them. But the device provides no specific supervision of traders bonus action.

"Under the authority granted to me by Congress, I have the opportunity to try to claim the restitution of compensation paid to the leaders of any company that received federal aid", nevertheless noted Kenneth Feinberg. The lawyer acknowledged, time responsible for the supervision of the Fund for compensation of the victims of the 11 Sep-tember, has 60 days to give the green light to the proposals concerning the 25 highest remuneration of each of the companies in question, to address the 75 following. But some blur is still on the sphere of jurisdiction of Kenneth Feinberg and the scope of the exercise. At the outset of his mission, he made no secret that the recommendations of the Treasury he required to take into account regional leaders past performance, but also the "market forces".

Two recent cases involving Citigroup and AIG show the practical limits of the exercise. In the first, the question of the remuneration of an employee of the Citigroup Bank, Andrew Hall, a trader of fifty-eight years leading its Phibro commodity brokerage subsidiary, made immediate surface. In question, the known contract of this trader features of Citi, for his collection of contemporary art sheltered in his Castle near Ha-novre, Germany, which provides a remuneration of $ 100 million! A record number for an establishment which has accused a net loss of 18.7 billion in 2008 and pocketed 45 billion of State aid. A priori, the contract of Andrew Hall, who was signed before the date key of February 11, 2009, should escape the control of Kenneth Feinberg. But the super-contrôleur was not excluded to address this issue. To avoid a direct confrontation with Kenneth Feinberg, Citi seeks to persuade its market operator to accept a part of his remuneration in shares. But the case could also be concluded by the transfer of Phibro, one of the rare profitable subsidiaries of banking group through its sound position taken on the evolution of the price of oil.

Taking the question

In the case of AIG, the figures are not less striking. After 80 billion of State aid, U.S. insurance giant said that pay annual for its new CEO Robert Benmosche, recently fixed at $ 10.5 million (including 7 million in salary and bonus $ 3.5 million) has already received approval in principle of Kenneth Feinberg. But House - white, it was carefully indicated that it would be still subject to scrutiny.

In General, there is a creeping de-escalation of the issue of the bonus. Since a few weeks, the recruitment of traders specializing in raw with a guaranteed minimum of $ 1 million bonus resumed. In addition, the fixed wage increases to offset the decline of the bonus in some banks is already considered a short-term solution.