Citigroup has awarded its newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit stocks worth $30 million, even as the India-born executive has decided to forgo a cash bonus at the crisis-ridden bank.

The 11 lakh (1.1 million) share units and options for additional 30 lakh (three million) shares being awarded to Mr Pandit is estimated to be worth about $30 million—an amount close to six times of total compensation paid by all the Indian banks together to their top executives last fiscal.

Nagpur-born Mr Pandit was conferred by the Indian government Padma Bhushan on Saturday.

Stock bonanza

The stock and options award was disclosed by Citigroup in a regulatory filing here late last week. This is higher than the total bonus worth $23.9 million given to previous CEO Charles Prince last year. Mr Prince got $10.7 million in stock and $13.2 million in cash bonus.

The salary of Mr Pandit is not known as yet. However, he got an annual pay package of about $26 million. In comparison, more than 500 top executives and board members at India’s public and private sector banks together received an annual compensation of about Rs 20 crore last fiscal. ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO K V Kamath, the top paid banker in India, took home about Rs 2.61 crore.

Just about 10 top bankers in India got their salary in crores last fiscal, according to data disclosed in their annual reports. The stock bonanza for Mr Pandit comes within weeks of Citigroup announcing close to 4,200 job cuts across the world. According to reports, the bank has finalised close to 400 lay-offs in the UK, while the remaining 3,800 jobs would be eliminated in the US and Asia, including India.