[Photo:  Bloomberg News]

Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan was awarded $20 million for 2016, a 25% jump from the previous year. His pay for 2016 - the biggest Moynihan has received since becoming CEO in 2010 - included $1.5Mn base salary plus $18.5Mn in stock. As in recent years, Moynihan, 57, did not receive a cash bonus. Of his stock award, 50% will be fully paid out only if the bank meets specific financial goals.

Moynihan must hit certain performance targets over the next 3 years or else he could forfeit some of the newly awarded stock units. Moynihan forfeited 58% percent of the performance-based shares he was awarded in 2013 because targets were not met.

Moynihan, who is also chairman, inherited a raft of challenges when he took over the bank, including legal fallout from its 2008 purchase of mortgage company Countrywide Financial. Since then, he has worked to resolve crisis-era litigation, slash costs and streamline a company that became bloated from years of acquisitions.

In Friday’s filing, Bank of America noted the company posted a profit of $17.9 billion in 2016 – 13% higher than in 2015, and the 2nd-highest in company history. The bank also cited revenue growth, lower expenses, “historically low” loan losses and $6.6 billion in capital returned to shareholders in 2016, among other accomplishments.

Independent bank analyst Nancy Bush credited Moynihan with having “brought the company around” but said challenges remain for the bank, the biggest being the need to cut more expenses. The pay bump seems a “reasonable move,” given the work Moynihan has done, she said.

Bank of America continues to lag some of its peers in key performance measures. Those include its efficiency ratio, a measure of how much it costs a bank to generate a dollar of revenue, as well as return on assets, which reflects how well a bank is using its assets to generate profits.