Did Bank of America Corp (BAC)’s Brian Moynihan Deserve a Raise?

Despite continued challenges on the legal front, Moynihan has guided the bank into a position where it can finally focus again on growing earnings as opposed to mitigating losses. In the bank’s third-quarter earnings release, B of A’s CFO Bruce Thompson said the words that all investors had been waiting to hear: “[W]e have turned our attention to driving core earnings.”

Moynihan has since ignited an aggressive drive to do just that. In the beginning of December, he announced that the bank is getting back into the mortgage game after surrendering territory to the likes of Wells Fargo. At the end of January, he sent a letter to B of A’s 270,000 employees outlining the renewed focus on customer service. And at a company gathering shortly thereafter, B of A announced a new marketing campaign designed to bolster these moves.

The big question going forward is whether these moves will succeed and, more importantly, whether Moynihan can deliver on his promise to start returning capital to shareholders. On the latter score, he has been particularly reticent, refusing to admit if and how much capital the bank has asked regulators for permission to return following the ongoing stress tests. At least one analyst has predicted it could be as much as quadruple its dividend. Though, at this point, there’s little use in speculating since we’ll know the answer to this by the middle of March.

The Foolish bottom line
Given what he’s accomplished over the last few years, it’s safe to say that there are few executives who deserve a raise as much as Brian Moynihan does. The big question now is whether shareholders will get a similar raise in their dividend payouts next month. If so, it will only further affirm the impressive job that Moynihan has done since taking over at B of A.

The article Did Brian Moynihan Deserve a Raise? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by John Maxfield.

John Maxfield owns shares of Bank of America. The Motley Fool recommends Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.