Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman is now the highest-paid bank executive in America following a 22% raise amid a record year for the company

• Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman was paid $33 million in 2020, the bank said in a filing Friday.
• Gorman's pay rose by 22%, making him the highest-paid CEO of a major US bank, Bloomberg reported.
• Morgan Stanley posted record earnings on the year and avoided cutting jobs, unlike its competitors.

Morgan Stanley paid CEO James Gorman a total of $33 million in 2020, a 22% increase from the previous year, the bank said in a regulatory filing Friday.

Gorman's pay bump makes him the highest-paid chief executive of a major US bank, pushing him past JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, according to Bloomberg.

Gorman's compensation last year included a base salary of $1.5 million, a cash bonus of roughly $7.9 million, deferred stock awards of roughly $7.9 million, and a performance based stock award of $15.75 million that's tied to certain equity- and shareholder-return targets.

Morgan Stanley posted record annual earnings of $48.2 billion last year despite the COVID-19 pandemic, as volatile markets and a rebound in mergers and listings helped fuel a reversal in Wall Street's fortunes since last March.

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Morgan Stanley's equities trading revenue jumped 30% year-on-year to $2.5 billion in the final three months of the year, while investment banking revenues, which include advisory and underwriting, surged 46% to $2.3 billion. The bank also finalized its $13 billion purchase of online trading platform E-Trade in October 2020.

Gorman was also among the major bank executives who promised concerned employees early last year that they wouldn't lose their jobs as economic fallout ravaged Wall Street.

Morgan Stanley was able to keep that promise, while many of its competitors including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo, undertook new rounds of cuts late last year.