Payouts averaged 40 percent of the company's targets, compared with an average 75 percent to 90 percent, MBIA said in a regulatory filing today. Some executives' bonuses were reduced by more than half.
Chief Executive Officer Jay Brown will receive an annual salary of $500,000, MBIA said. Brown, who was chief executive until 2004, returned to run the world's largest bond insurer Feb. 19 after the ouster of Gary Dunton.
MBIA, which started as the Municipal Bond Insurance Association in 1974, has been hurt by an expansion beyond municipal insurance into guaranteeing collateralized debt obligations, which repackage pools of debt assets into new securities with varying risk. MBIA last week said losses continued in 2008, though it couldn't yet estimate the size of the declines.
The reduction means nine executives will have their bonuses cut between 30 percent and 55 percent, MBIA said.
Staff bonuses won't be reduced by as much. Managing directors will get 65 percent of targets, vice presidents and directors 75 percent and associate vice presidents 85 percent.