The Error of Omission

I want to heartily welcome Robert Druskin to E*Trade Financial Corp.’s board of directors. I wish him the best of luck.

That’s odd, you may be think. Why would he heartily welcome someone who joined E*Trade’s board today? The answer is not that he joined the board, but how. Specifically, E*Trade came out front and center and disclosed Druskin’s compensation (it’s $300,000 per year, in case you were wondering).

Bank of America Corp., on the other hand, has done nothing of the sort for Brian Moynihan and Moynihan will be BAC’s new president and CEO on Jan. 1, not just a director. To be sure, I’ve asked Bank of America for information on Moynihan’s compensation. Bank officials did not even have the courtesy to tell me that they won’t comment.

But I’m not surprised. After all, arguably the predominating reason why Bank of America chose Moynihan — an investment banker, after all — to be CEO is because it didn’t have to make a show of his compensation. However, it is simply wrong for Bank of America to refrain from informing shareholders — even if those shareholders are not the federal government — how much it is paying Moynihan. Do all principles of disclosure on compensation go out the window once TARP is paid back? Better yet, should they?