E*Trade pays CEO Idzik $13.5 mln in his maiden year at firm
(Refiled to add CEO's first name in second paragraph, adds slug)
NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - E*Trade Financial Corp , the smallest of the publicly traded online discount brokers, gave its chief executive officer $13.5 million in compensation in his first year on the job, based on his performance "during an important transition period" and comparisons with pay for comparable industry executives.
In its annual proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, the New York-based bank and brokerage firm said Paul Idzik, a former Barclays Bank retail banking executive who joined in January 2013, received $4.42 million in cash and $9 million of stock that vests over four years.
The company's compensation committee said the stock was a signing bonus and E*Trade does not intend to give him additional equity over the next two years under his employment agreement.
Idzik is the seventh chief executive at E*Trade since late 2007 as the company struggled to emerge from billions of dollars of bad loans from its attempt to balance volatile brokerage earnings with what its former management believed was stable banking revenue.
Since Idzik's arrival, he has replaced most senior executives, sold $2 billion of loans, raised the company's capital levels, revamped its marketing campaign and focused the company on its core brokerage operations.
E*Trade also received permission from regulators in late 2013 to begin transferring capital from its bank subsidiary, which it is keeping to hold clients cash, to fund its brokerage operations.
Navtej Nandra, a former colleague of Idzik's when both were consultants at Booz Allen, received $2.13 million in cash for the nine months he served last year as president after leaving his position at Morgan Stanley's investment management unit. Nandra, who is putting a big emphasis on delivering E*Trade services digitally, also received restricted stock in February valued at $2.1 million on its grant date.
Chief Financial Officer Matthew Audette, the only senior executive remaining from the management team prior to Idzik's arrival, received a 3.8 percent raise in total compensation from 2012 to $2.2 million.
Excluding Idzik's $9 million stock-based signing bonus, his $4.4 million pay in 2013 compares with $6.5 million in total compensation received by TD Ameritrade Holding Corp CEO Fred Tomczyk for the company's fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2013.
Charles Schwab Corp., the largest competitor to E*Trade by capitalization, paid its CEO Walt Bettinger $10.2 million in 2012 but has not yet reported his 2013 compensation.
Shares of E*Trade were down slightly on Tuesday morning at $23.87 per share.
(Reporting by Jed Horowitz; Editing by Chris Reese)
