Executives at Merrill-Lynch rushed their bonuses so as to beat the official takeover by Bank of America, December 29 instead of January or February.

The BoA deal closed January 1, and Merrill hurridly allocated, “about $3bn to $4bn,” for bonuses, despite a $21.5 billion loss in 2008.

I guess that this is because their base salaries, probably more than $¼ million/year on the low end, were just not enough to incentivize them, because there are just so many investment banks aggressively hiring, and they would poach their valued employees.

Delightful.