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Mack, Lewis Blame Pay Limits for Executive Departures
John Mack and Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive officers of Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp., said pay limits tied to federal rescue funds have prompted some top employees to leave the companies.

“I had a hedge fund say to me, ‘I can hire anyone I want from you and Goldman,’” Mack said at the bank’s annual meeting today in Purchase, New York, referring to rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Some units lost a dozen people, he said, without identifying them. Lewis, speaking at his annual shareholder gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, also blamed the restrictions for departures.

“We have lost strong revenue generators over the past three months to competitors that are not facing the same compensation restrictions that we are,” Lewis said. ...

...Some Morgan Stanley employees left for non-U.S. companies, Mack said, responding to a question regarding the effect of compensation restrictions on the firm’s ability to retain workers. After calling the departures an “exodus,” Mack later said, “exodus is too strong a word.” ...