Executive Compensation at the American Bankers Association (ABA) 2022

The American Bankers Association (ABA) is a non-profit 501 (c) (6) organization – “a business league that pushes advocacy, provides education, products, and solutions to its membership and the financial services industry.” In other words, the ABA is a tax-exempt association for banks, savings and loans, and trust companies. Based in Washington, DC the ABA engages in lobbying, works to establish banking standards, and educates the public and its members.

While some people think of non-profits as almost an afterthought, the ABA is anything but insignificant. The ABA raises more than $140 million annually, typically spends less than it brings in, and has accumulated$ 573 million in net assets – a $450 million increase over the previous year due to a windfall on the income statement in 2022 referred to as “transaction fees.”  

In 2022, the ABA reported total revenue of $592 million (compared to $136 million in 2020, $135 million in 2019, which appears to be an anomaly ($456 million was “transaction fees”).  If the $456 million is subtracted from the $592 million, then $136 million is the remaining revenue, most of which came from dues ($45 million), royalties ($38 million), training ($18 million), gains and investment income ($13 million) and conferences ($6 million).

Expenses totaled $119 million during the same period with the 5 largest expenses reported to be compensation ($70 million), fees for services ($14 million), office-related expenses ($16 million), travel and conferences ($12 million), and advertising ($4 million).

The difference between the remaining revenue ($136 million) and expenses ($119 million) is $17 million of unspent revenue that was added to the general fund along with the $456 million in “transactions fees.”  Offsetting these were $28 million in net unrealized losses on investments.  After making a $6 million positive adjustment to assets, the ABA ended the year with $573 million in net assets.

In 2022, 389 employees were compensated $70 million, which equates to an average compensation of $180,000. However, only 199 employees received more than $100,000 in compensation which means there were some very highly compensated people in ABA.

The 13 most highly compensated employees were compensated $11 million:

• $3,651,732:  Rob Nichols, President and CEO
• $  920,957:  Naomi Camper, Chief Policy Officer
• $  848,360:  James Ballentine, EVP
• $  721,444:  Jess Sharp, EVP
• $  721,206:  James Edrington, EVP  
• $  626,711:  Peter Cook, Chief Communication Officer
• $  583,219:  Karin Petersen Flynn, CFO
• $  580,311:  Alethia Baggett, Chief HR Officer
• $  530,765:  Thomas Pinder, Secretary
• $  525,189:  Kenneth Clayton, EVP
• $  522,567:  Virginia O’Neill, EVP, Regulatory Compliance Policy
• $  464,607:  Paul Benda, SVP,, Operational Risk and Cybersecurity
• $  249,780:  Jeffrey Owen, Former COO

As illustrated above, 9 of the 13 most highly compensated employees (69%) are male while 4 of the 13 (or 31%) are female.

The 5 most highly compensated employees received $37 million in compensation from 2017-2022:

Rob Nichols:  Total Compensation 2017-2022:  $20 million

• 2022:  $3,651,732
• 2021:  $4,832,923
• 2020:  $3,271,038
• 2019:  $3,145,960
• 2018:  $2,785,380
• 2017:  $2,430,683

Naomi Camper:  Total Compensation 2019-2022:  $3 million

• 2022:  $920,97
• 2021:  $901,981
• 2020:  $877,287
• 2019:  $402,100

James Edrington:  Total Compensation 2017-2022:  $6 million

• 2022:  $  731,206
• 2021:  $1,011,554
• 2020: $1,393,776:
• 2019:  $1,178,049
• 2018:  $  716,321
• 2017:  $  617,381

James Ballentine:  Total Compensation 2017-2022:  $7 million

• 2022:   $  848,360
• 2021:  $2,268,860
• 2020: $1,265,549
• 2019:  $1,254,040
• 2018:  $  654,212
• 2017:  $  633,696

Jess Sharp:  Total Compensation 2021-2022:  $1.4 million

• 2022:  $721,444
• 2021:  $663,428 

The IRS Form 990 also reports the following information:

The ABA paid for first class travel. Certain officers of the organization (five in total) are allowed to fly first class and may bring a companion at their discretion.

The ABA pays for social club dues or initiation fees for business use.

The ABA provides a non-qualified supplemental employee retirement plan (SERP) and/or a supplemental life insurance plan with accrued present value benefits for the year (note the ABA year begins September 1 of one year and ends August 31st the following year).  See the Form 990, Schedule J, Part III, Supplemental Information for details.

A gross up of 12.5% of the taxable amount of the SERP is paid to the executives.

The bottom line is that if you’re paying membership dues or fees to the ABA, a large portion of your money (about 87%) goes towards supporting the staff of the organization (including more than a dozen well compensated employees), consultants, advertising, office-related expenses along with first class travel, companion travel, retirement benefits, gross up payments, and social club dues and/or initiation dues.  About 13% was added to savings (the general fund).

42 independent contractors received more than $100,000 in compensation with the five (5) most highly compensated reported to be consultants:

• $708,919:  Velir, of Somerville, MD for consulting (a marketing agency)
• $603,956:  Amedia, of Bethesda, MD for consulting (media analysis agency)
• $551,449:  Production Resource Group, of New Windsor, NY for consulting  (video production)
• $544,452:  Wolfe Street Partners, of Alexandria, VA for consulting (advocacy firm)
• $536,518  :  Confluence Global, of Annandale, VA for consulting

To read the IRS Form 990 (2021 for the year ending August 30, 2022), click here.