At Merrill Lynch, 696 of its 59,000 employees were paid at least $1m last year, according to a report issued on July 30 by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo. At Bank of America, 172 of its 243,000 staff reached the same threshold.

Fourteen individuals at Merrill earned more than $10m for a total of $250m while four at BofA surpassed the $10m mark for a combined $64m.

BofA agreed to buy Merrill $50bn in an all-stock deal over the same weekend last September that Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.

• Bonus report (PDF)

30 Jul 2009 -

Cuomo’s treasure map