What CEOs Want (and Directors Aren’t Giving)

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compensation-7-12-19.pngChief executive officers at community banks want more equity, not more cash.

This is particularly true of community bank CEOs, who say that including equity in pay packages incentivizes them to create long-term shareholder value, aids management retention and prepares them to join the board.

While this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, the message may be lost on some directors of these banks.

In Bank Director’s 2019 Compensation Survey—sponsored by Compensation Advisors—54 percent of CEOs said their bank should offer equity or increase the amount of equity they already provide. Directors didn’t feel as strongly about this: Only 19 percent said offering or increasing equity was a priority. They saw equity as one of a number of potential improvements, along with other options like non-equity long-term compensation, cash incentive and higher salary.

The board of directors at Talladega, Alabama-based FirstBanc of Alabama added stock grants to the compensation plan for President and CEO J. Chad Jones in 2017, after discussing how to incentivize and retain executive management. The board granted Jones 3,000 shares—1,000 of which were unrestricted and granted immediately, with the remainder consisting of restricted stock transferred over time.

“It has raised my eyebrows,” he says. “It certainly helped me focus on how to drive the stock and dividends.”

Adding the equity incentive “very minimally” diluted existing shareholders but allows Jones to benefit from the upside he creates. The board also approved a block of shares for other C-level officers, with which Jones can implement a similar equity grant program for them.

Jones added that increasing his salary beyond a certain point offered diminishing returns for him and higher expenses for First Bank of Alabama, which has $548.6 million in assets.

“You can give me 5 percent to 10 percent pay increases each year for the next 25 to 30 years. At that point in time, what good has it done?” he says. “I love the compensation side, don’t get me wrong, everyone does. But … if [the board] continues to increase my pay 5 percent and I’m the highest paid individual in this company, it doesn’t make sense for [them] to continue increasing my pay.”

Interest in and demand for equity-based compensation is expected to rise as competition for qualified executives remains stiff and a new generation of talent assumes the top spot, says J. Scott Petty, a partner at executive search firm Chartwell Partners. He says community bank boards should use it as a retention tool.

“In general, more and more CEOs want equity as a part of their compensation package,” he says. “It’s the ultimate alignment of the goals of the board and how the CEO is going to achieve those goals.”

Succession planning at First National Bank of Kentucky changed President and CEO Gregory Goff’s perspective on equity incentive compensation. He plans to retire soon from the Carrollton, Kentucky-based bank, which has $124.5 million in assets, and says he wishes he had opportunities to accumulate equity throughout his career.

“It’s one area of the bank where I didn’t push much—I did my job and went home,” he says. “I ran it like I owned all of it. But now I have no reason to stay here.”

He says the board of directors looked at different incentive compensation structures several times, but could never get comfortable with the dilution from awarding equity or alternatives like bank-owned life insurance. He says the board discussed adding him as a director after he retires, but his lack of equity makes him less interested in a seat.

When Jeffrey Rose interviewed with the board at Davenport, Iowa-based American Bank & Trust in 2016, he told them he wanted to make a bet on himself. Rose says he had been paid a salary and a bonus for turning around banks before, and it “wasn’t enough.” As president and CEO of American Bank & Trust, he hoped to capture some of the upside he created as he helped turn the bank around.

At the $366.2 million asset bank, Rose has the option to purchase a set number of shares each year at a predetermined price. The program is “very simple, very clean,” and the shares fully vest after he purchases them.

American Bank & Trust is taking the equity compensation philosophy one step further, having recently decided to compensate the board with stock instead of cash, too. Rose says the decision generated extensive discussion, but will help long-time directors become more invested in the bank and serve as a positive signal to local shareholders.

It’s tempting for a board to shy away from granting equity to executives—especially if the bank is closely held—but the benefits from doing so can outweigh the costs.

Review Your Director Equity Plans

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equity-4-17-19.pngOutside director compensation has been on the minds of shareholders and compensation committees after a 2017 court decision and a continuing focus of proxy advisory firms that recommend how institutional investors vote on matters presented to public company stockholders.

In late 2017, the Delaware Supreme Court issued a decision involving claims of excessive nonemployee director compensation at Investors Bancorp, a Short Hills, New Jersey-based bank. In that case, the court applied a higher legal standard to decisions made by directors about their own compensation.

Since the 2017 decision, other cases have been settled involving similar claims against public companies, and more new cases were filed in 2018. The two primary proxy advisory firms have also shown an enhanced focus since the 2017 decision on compensation awarded to outside directors.

With these cases in mind, focus on outside director compensation continues, and public companies especially should review their decision-making processes about discretionary stock equity plans and non-employee director compensation.

Stockholder claims concerning the conduct of directors generally are subject to review under the business judgment rule, where the presumption is that the board acted in good faith, on an informed basis and in the best interests of stockholders.

In cases where the business judgment rule applies, the court will not second-guess a board’s business decision.

Before the Investors Bancorp decision, this was the standard applied to cases challenging director compensation decisions, with a few exceptions. In the cases where the Delaware courts reviewed challenges to director compensation approved by directors themselves, the courts recognized a stockholder ratification defense for director compensation in cases in which stockholders had approved the following:

  • An equity plan that provides for fixed awards
  • The specific awards made under an equity plan
  • An equity plan that includes “self-executing” provisions—awards that are determined based on a formula specified in the plan without further discretion by the directors
  • An equity plan that includes “meaningful limits” on director compensation—a cap on the awards that could be made to nonemployee directors

In cases where a company can take advantage of the stockholder ratification defense, the company can seek dismissal of the stockholder claim under the business judgment rule.

In the Investors Bancorp case, the Delaware Supreme Court considered the scope of stockholder ratification of director compensation decisions for the first time in more than 50 years, and in doing so limited the ratification defense when directors make equity awards to themselves under an equity incentive plan.

The Delaware court determined that the more onerous rule—the “entire fairness” test—applies, where a plaintiff can show a majority of the board was interested or lacked independence regarding the decision, or would receive a personal financial benefit from the decision.

For equity grants awarded to directors under the plan, that test requires the board to prove equity incentive awards they grant themselves are fair to the company and its stockholders. The Delaware court found that while the stockholders in the Investors Bancorp case had approved the general parameters of the equity plan that contained a limit on the aggregate amount of stock awards that could be made to directors, they had not ratified the specific awards to directors and, therefore, the business judgment rule did not apply.

The decision therefore calls into question whether the ratification defense is still feasible for plans that contain only “meaningful limits” on director awards. The Delaware Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower court to review under the entire fairness standard, and that case is currently pending.

Key Takeaways
Boards and compensation committees should consider the following to mitigate potential risks in implementing equity incentive plans or making awards to directors under existing equity incentive plans:

  • Careful consideration of peer group selection
  • Retention of a compensation consultant experienced in banking
  • Whether to include director compensation limits in equity plans
  • Ensuring that director compensation decisions are made after a robust process that accounts for market practices and peer group practices

And finally, boards and compensation committees should carefully describe the decision-making process and other key factors for equity awards to nonemployee directors in the company’s annual proxy statement.

Why Investors Are Still Hungry for New Bank Equity

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capital-10-12-18.pngThe U.S. economy is riding high. Bank stocks, while their valuations are down somewhat from their highs at the beginning of the year, are still enjoying a nice run. For most banks that want to raise new equity capital, the window is still open.

The banking industry is already well capitalized and bank profitability remains strong. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the industry earned $60.2 billion in the second quarter of this year, a 25 percent gain over the same period last year, thanks in no small part to the Trump tax cut, which has also helped prop up bank stock valuations. The truth is, in the current environment, banks don’t need to raise new equity just to increase their capital base—they can do that through retained earnings. The industry is awash with capital and most banks don’t necessarily need even more of it.

“The industry overall is enjoying capital accretion,” says Bill Hickey, a principal and co-head of investment banking at Sandler O’Neill + Partners. “Capital ratios industry-wide have continued to increase as banks have earned money and obviously enjoyed the benefits of tax reform. … I think the need for equity capital has lessened slightly as a result of capital ratios continuing to increase.”

Over the last few years, banks have clearly taken advantage of the opportunity to repair their balance sheets, which were ravaged during the financial crisis. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, there were 123 bank equity offerings in 2016, which raised nearly $6 billion in capital at a median offering price that was 125 percent of tangible book value (TBV) and 52.8 percent of the most recent quarter’s earnings per share (MRQ EPS). There were 146 equity offerings in 2017 that raised nearly $7.5 billion, with offering price medians of 66.3 percent of TBV and 16.6 percent of MRQ EPS. (The industry was much less profitable in 2016 than in 2017, which explains the wide disparity between the median values for the two years.) And through Sept. 26, 2018, there were just in 66 offerings—but they have raised $7.6 billion in equity capital, with a median offering price that was 175 percent of TBV and 13.3 percent of MRQ EPS.

As the median offering prices as a percentage of TBV have gone up over the last two and a half years, while also declining as a percentage of the most recent quarter’s earnings per share—which means that institutional investors are in effect paying more and getting less from a valuation perspective—you might think investor appetite for bank equity would begin to wane. But according to Hickey, you would be wrong.

“There is a lot of money out there looking to be deployed in financial services and banks,” he says. “So there are folks who need to deploy capital—pension funds, funds specifically focused on investing in financial institutions. They have cash positions they need to deploy into investments. So there is a great demand for equity, particularly bank equity at the current time.”

Hickey says most of this new equity was raised to fuel growth, either organic growth or acquisitions. But any bank considering doing so needs to provide investors with a detailed plan for how they intend to use it. “You have to be able to articulate a strategy for the use of the capital you intend to raise,” says Hickey. “That seems obvious, but it needs to be explained quite well to the investment community so they understand how the capital is going to be deployed and have a sense of what their return possibilities are.”

And if you’re going to tap the equity market to support your strategic growth plan, make sure you raise enough the first time around. “Arguably, a company [should] raise enough money that will allow it to fund their growth for at least 18 to 24 months,” Hickey explains. “Investors don’t like it when they’re investing today and then 12 months later the same company comes back looking for more capital. Investors would [prefer] to minimize the number of offerings so they’re not diluted in the out years.”