American Bankers Association (ABA): Executive Compensation (2024)

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 about $175 million annually, typically spends less than it brings in, and has accumulated more than $700 million in net assets.

Key financial information in 2024 is summarized as follows:

• The ABA reported total revenue of $175 million, most of which came from dues ($46 million), royalties ($44 million), training  and certifications and other programs ($15 million), gains and investment income ($32 million) and conferences ($14 million).
• Expenses totaled $149 million during the same period with the 5 largest expenses reported to be compensation ($83 million), fees for services ($23 million), office-related expenses ($18 million), travel and conferences ($17 million), and advertising ($5 million).
• The difference between revenue ($175 million) and expenses ($149 million) is $26 million of unspent revenue that was added to the general fund.  After adjusting for $82 million in net unrealized gains on investments and making a $1 million negative adjustment to assets, the ABA ended the year with $720 million in net assets – $100 million more than at the beginning of the year.
• In 2024, 400 employees were compensated $83 million, which equates to an average compensation of $208,000. However, only 239 employees received more than $100,000 in compensation which means there were some very highly compensated employees in ABA.

The 13 most highly compensated employees received $13 million in 2024:

• $5,128,508:  Rob Nichols, President and CEO
• $1,320,483:  Naomi Camper, Chief Policy Officer
• $   756,318:  Jess Sharp, EVP
• $   749,540:  Karin Petersen Flynn, CFO
• $   701,824:  Peter Cook, Chief Communication Officer
• $   648,322:  Alethia Baggett, Chief HR Officer
• $   617,441:  Thomas Pinder, Secretary
• $   598,442:  Kristen Sutton, EVP, Congressional Relations
• $   588,019:  Virginia O’Neill, EVP, Regulatory Compliance Policy
• $   586,764:  Sayee Srinivason, Chief Economist
• $   566,648:  Russell Davis, EVP, Member Experience
• $   516,585:  Laena F Pomeroy, Senior Advisor
• $   457,943:  James Edrington, EVP  (unit June, 2023)

As illustrated above, 7 of the 13 (54%) most highly compensated employees are male while 6 of the 13 (or 46%) are female.

Rob Nichols was the most highly compensated employee with more than $5 million in compensation reported in 2024 (and nearly $30 million from 2017-2024).

Rob Nichols:  Total Compensation 2017-2024:  $29 million

• 2024:  $5,128,508
• 2023:  $3,496,516
• 2022:  $3,651,732
• 2021:  $4,832,923
• 2020:  $3,271,038
• 2019:  $3,145,960
• 2018:  $2,785,380
• 2017:  $2,430,683

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 83%) 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.  15% of revenue ($26 million) was added to the general fund in 2024.

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

• $2,500,000:  Outten and Golden, of NY, NY for legal work
• $ 520,000:  Revolution Media Group, of Alexandria, VA for advertising
• $  551,847:  Keybridge Research, of Washington, DC for consulting
• $1,406,506:  Jones Day, of Washington, DC for legal work
• $1,132,738:  Morrison and Foerster, of LA, CA for consulting

It is important to note $24 million was paid to non-employees or independent contractors.  The 5 most high compensated (who received more than $100,000) listed above received $6 million, which means 28 others received more than $100,000 but less than $520,000, or between $2.8 million and $14.6 million.

To read the IRS Form 990 (2023 for the year ending August 30, 2024), click here.