Moodys to Jefferies: Watch Out! Paying Two Execs $78 Million is Danergous

Forbes' Halai Touryalai writes:   For what it’s worth, Moody’s thinks Jefferies Group‘s $78 million in pay for two of its top executives is a bad idea.  A week after the investment bank announced that it was awarding CEO Richard Handler some $58 million over three years the credit rating agency is calling the compensation package a “credit negative for bondholders–in other words the payout could hurt the firm’s credit rating.

Last week the firm said it would award a combined $78 million to two executives including chairman of the executive board, Brian Friedman. Wall Street was buzzing about the compensation amounts as large payouts like this one have been scrutinized since the financial crisis.

Much of the pain on Wall Street (if you can find any) has been placed on rank and file employees. Some 26,352 employees were let go in the financial sector in the first half of 2012 while  the giant pay packages for executives mostly remain the same.

Read more at http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2013/02/04/dangerous-to-pay-two-execs-78-million-moodys-tells-jefferies/