February 22nd, 2010
Top Level Unrest At Regions Financial Corp.- Esteves Out, Turner In.
Sliding in at close of business Monday was this 8K from Regions Financial Corp.
The filing announced CFO Irene Esteves' departure from Regions Financial Corp. David Turner, executive vice president at the company will be taking over from Ms Esteves.
What is interesting is that ex CFO Ms Esteves joined the company as recently as 2008. Her compensation package for a company like Regions which has borrowed $3.5 billion under the TARP program was extremely generous, to say the least.
Having joined the company less than 2 years back in 2008, she had been paid handsomely for relocating to Birmingham, Alabama. In 2008, in the midst of all the housing turmoil, Regions purchased her home at the then fair market value.In addition to the benefits under the relocation program, Regions Financial paid her $560,000 to cover the loss on sale of her home as well as a $200,000 relocation allowance grossed up for applicable taxes. Her offer letter also included a 'guaranteed bonus' of 'at least' $1000,000 for 2008 and 2009.
Of course, there is no further discussion in today's 8k of all these allowances and bonuses and whether there is any plan to recover any money. But that's the financial industry for you.
Under InvesGuard's data model, we had previously raised a red flag for the unreasonable amount of perquisites and allowances provided to Ms Esteves. Regions Financial Corp already has a low score on its 'Board of Directors and Senior Management' and unfortunately this additional incident will bring it down even further.
More details on InvesGuard’s scores are available only to subscribers. If you would like to buy InvesGuard’s report for Regions Financial Corp. please email info@invesguard.com with ‘Regions’ in the subject.
Tags: Add new tag, Rats leaving a sinking ship, Regions Financial Corp
