Morgan Stanley CEO's total pay rose 13% to $39.4 million in 2022

By Nupur Anand and Mehnaz Yasmin

(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman's total compensation rose nearly 13% to $39.4 million in 2022 versus a year earlier, according to a filing Thursday.

That is higher than the $31.5 million package the bank reported in January, which reflected a 10% pay cut. The updated numbers included deferred compensation linked to the CEO's performance.

Gorman's total 2022 pay includes a base salary of $1.5 million, cash bonus of $7.5 million and stock awards of $30.4 million.

Morgan Stanley directors had earlier cited "a challenging economic and market environment" in determining the CEO's pay, they said in the January filing.

The ratio of Gorman's pay to the median pay of an employee for 2022 was 274 to 1, compared with 255 to 1 in 2021.

Gorman, 64, took the helm in 2010 has since carried out high-profile deals that diversified the Wall Street powerhouse's revenue, bringing in more stable fees from wealth management.

"The strategic decisions we made over the past decade have transformed Morgan Stanley's business," Gorman wrote in the filing. Its wealth and investment management arm, which oversees $5.5 trillion in assets, will drive the company's future growth, he said.

The CEO did not address industry turmoil caused by the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank last month. His counterpart at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Jamie Dimon, warned shareholders that there could be more tumult ahead.

"The current crisis is not yet over, and even when it is behind us, there will be repercussions from it for years to come," Dimon wrote in an annual letter to shareholders on Tuesday.

(This story has been corrected to change the percentage from 11% to 13% in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru and Nupur Anand in New York; Editing by Lananh Nguyen, Shounak Dasgupta and Jonathan Oatis)