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Bank stocks sink but CEOs see pay hikes
Shares of publicly traded financial outfits were down nearly 24% in 2007, but CEOs saw a median pay raise of 5%.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The mortgage crisis spurred huge writedowns for U.S. banks, which led to a staggering drop in their stocks in 2007.
But their chief executives didn't suffer. CEOs at all publicly-traded banks saw a median pay raise of nearly 5% last year, according to a survey of executive compensation by research firm SNL Financial.
Things were tougher at the biggest banks. CEOs at institutions with more than $10 billion in assets saw their median compensation drop by 4.3%, according to Will Retzer, a SNL Financial analyst.
The 5% bump in CEO pay came as bank stocks sank 23.7% in 2007, after posting a 16.9% gain in 2006. That plunge, according to Retzer, is historic, and the disconnect between poor bank performance and rising CEO compensation could lead to some management changes at the top.
"I have definitely never witnessed anything like this before," Retzer said. "I would think that you would look at it and see that compensation should be tied to performance...I think individual CEOs may not be CEO next year," he said.
The biggest banks were responsible for nearly a third of the 2007 losses, Retzer said.
Together, JP Morgan (JPM, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) contributed nearly one third of the collective 23.7% loss in bank stock prices.
Retzer noted that CEO compensation is often made up of a base salary, bonuses and stock option compensation.
Retzer said SNL Financial prepared the report from data the institutions filed with the SEC. 
