Loopholes Evident In Pay To Tenn. Bank Executives

Banks say they are paying that taxpayer money back to the government, with interest. And none of the CEOs of the five largest banks received bonuses for 2008, except for Pinnacle Financial Partners' Terry Turner, who pointed out that his company's stock price was up 21 percent for 2008 and has fallen only recently. Turner said his pay is based on a comparison with other banks of similar size and his successful handling of an acquisition of fellow bank Mid-America Bancshares.

A spokesman for Suntrust Banks said the bank eliminated its cash-based incentives in 2008 and tied incentives to stock performance. The value of stock awards given to the bank CEO, James Wells, has fallen 90 percent, the bank said.

First Horizon National Corp., the parent company of First Tennessee Bank, gave some pay increases to executives last year, but a spokesman said that it was an almost all-new team of executives.

Gerald Baker, the departing chief executive officer of First Horizon, got a pay raise of $27,000 to $817,654 last year because he took on a new job as chairman, said John Daniel, executive vice president and head of human resources. Baker has since retired.