Four Bear Stearns bosses bag £197m

FOUR top executives at US investment bank Bear Stearns are sharing a $327m (£197m) stock bonanza in yet another bumper pay day on Wall Street.

Chairman James Cayne, already one of America's highest-paid executives, will receive $117m under the bank's deferred compensation scheme.

Bear Stearns is also paying shares worth a total of $210m to executive committee chairman Alan 'Ace' Greenberg, and co-presidents Warren Spector and Alan Schwartz.

The payout, detailed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, comes amid the widening scandal over the $140m package handed to Richard Grasso, former head of the New York Stock Exchange. The row last week cost Grasso his job.

The Bear Stearns Four have gained from a strong performance in the past ten years - a total annual return of 20.9% - that has bolstered their deferred bonuses. Cayne made deferrals in 1993 and 1998.