Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, which lost $55bn in 2008, between them paid 1,400 employees bonuses of $1m or more each, according to a New York state report, released on Thursday, on banks propped up with taxpayer funds.

The study, compiled by Andrew Cuomo, New York attorney-general, showed that JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, which both finished in the black last year, paid the most million-dollar bonuses – 1,626 and 953, respectively.

However, the totals at a profitable bank such as Goldman were nearly matched by two of the year’s biggest losers on Wall Street. Citi, which suffered a $27.7bn loss, paid million-dollar bonuses to 738 employees. Merrill, which lost $27.6bn, paid 696 bonuses of $1m or more.

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JPMorgan, which earned $5.6bn in 2008, set aside a total of $8.7bn for bonuses. The report shows that JPMorgan paid out bonuses in excess of $3m to more than 200 employees The bank received $25bn in Tarp funds last year and paid the money back last month.

At Goldman, the bonus pool last year was $4.8bn, more than twice the $2.3bn it earned for the year. Goldman paid $3m or more to 212 employees. The bank paid back $10bn in Tarp funds last month.

Citigroup set aside $5.3bn for its bonus pool, and paid bonuses of $3m or more to 124 employees. Like Bank of America, Citigroup received a total of $45bn in Tarp funds in 2008 and has recently converted some of that funding into common equity.

BofA paid bonuses of $3m to 28 employees and million-dollar bonuses to 172. The Charlotte, North Carolina, bank reported a profit of $4bn in 2008 and set aside $3.3bn for bonuses.

Morgan Stanley earned $1.7bn last year and set aside $4.5bn for bonus payments. The firm paid bonuses of $3m to 101 employees and million-dollar bonuses to 428. Morgan Stanley received $10bn in Tarp funds last year, and paid back the money in June.

Among the other banks in Mr Cuomo’s report, Bank of New York Mellon paid 74 million-dolllar bonuses, Wells Fargo paid 62 and State Street paid 44.

Source/Full Story: FT.com

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