Some U.S. bank pay "unmoored" from performance: Cuomo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bonuses paid to executives at nine banks that received U.S. government bailout money in 2008 were greater than net income at some of the banks, the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday.

Cuomo, in a report on months of investigation into compensation paid by the banks, said employee pay "has become unmoored from the banks' financial performance."

Representatives of the banks either declined comment on the report or could not comment immediately.

"There is no clear rhyme or reason to the way banks compensate and reward their employees," said the report by Cuomo, New York's top legal officer, who began his probe last October amid taxpayer complaints about Wall Street pay.

Even in one of Wall Street's worst years on record, at least 4,793 bankers and traders received more than $1 million in bonus payments, according to the report.

Cuomo argued that, if firms followed "a more principled" bonus system, they would be less susceptible to poaching of their employees by other firms offering more pay.

"This rationalization of the compensation and bonus system must be accomplished now," said the report, which was sent to Edolphus Towns, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman.

Since nine banks received a total of $125 billion last October in taxpayer money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to help them survive the financial crisis, Cuomo has pressed them for details on billions of dollars paid to executives amid huge losses.

SUBSTANTIALLY GREATER

The report said bonuses for Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co were "substantially greater" than the banks' net income.

Goldman earned $2.3 billion, paid out $4.8 billion in bonuses and received $10 billion in TARP funding, the report said.

Morgan Stanley earned $1.7 billion, paid $4.475 billion in bonuses and received $10 billion in TARP funding, while JP Morgan Chase earned $5.6 billion, paid $8.69 billion in bonuses and received $25 billion in TARP funding.