JP Morgan Chase 2015 Annual Report Download - page 241

JPMorgan Chase & Co./2015 Annual Report 231
Note 10 – Employee stock-based incentives
Employee stock-based awards
In 2015, 2014 and 2013, JPMorgan Chase granted long-
term stock-based awards to certain employees under its
Long-Term Incentive Plan, as amended and restated
effective May 19, 2015 (“LTIP”). Under the terms of the
LTIP, as of December 31, 2015, 93 million shares of
common stock were available for issuance through
May 2019. The LTIP is the only active plan under which the
Firm is currently granting stock-based incentive awards. In
the following discussion, the LTIP, plus prior Firm plans and
plans assumed as the result of acquisitions, are referred to
collectively as the “LTI Plans,” and such plans constitute the
Firm’s stock-based incentive plans.
Restricted stock units (“RSUs”) are awarded at no cost to
the recipient upon their grant. Generally, RSUs are granted
annually and vest at a rate of 50% after two years and
50% after three years and are converted into shares of
common stock as of the vesting date. In addition, RSUs
typically include full-career eligibility provisions, which
allow employees to continue to vest upon voluntary
termination, subject to post-employment and other
restrictions based on age or service-related requirements.
All RSUs awards are subject to forfeiture until vested and
contain clawback provisions that may result in cancellation
under certain specified circumstances. RSUs entitle the
recipient to receive cash payments equivalent to any
dividends paid on the underlying common stock during the
period the RSUs are outstanding and, as such, are
considered participating securities as discussed in Note 24.
Under the LTI Plans, stock options and stock appreciation
rights (“SARs”) have generally been granted with an
exercise price equal to the fair value of JPMorgan Chase’s
common stock on the grant date. The Firm periodically
grants employee stock options to individual employees.
There were no material grants of stock options or SARs
in 2015 and 2014. Grants of SARs in 2013 become
exercisable ratably over five years (i.e., 20% per year) and
contain clawback provisions similar to RSUs. The 2013
grants of SARs contain full-career eligibility provisions.
SARs generally expire ten years after the grant date.
The Firm separately recognizes compensation expense for
each tranche of each award as if it were a separate award
with its own vesting date. Generally, for each tranche
granted, compensation expense is recognized on a straight-
line basis from the grant date until the vesting date of the
respective tranche, provided that the employees will not
become full-career eligible during the vesting period. For
awards with full-career eligibility provisions and awards
granted with no future substantive service requirement, the
Firm accrues the estimated value of awards expected to be
awarded to employees as of the grant date without giving
consideration to the impact of post-employment
restrictions. For each tranche granted to employees who
will become full-career eligible during the vesting period,
compensation expense is recognized on a straight-line basis
from the grant date until the earlier of the employee’s full-
career eligibility date or the vesting date of the respective
tranche.
The Firm’s policy for issuing shares upon settlement of
employee stock-based incentive awards is to issue either
new shares of common stock or treasury shares. During
2015, 2014 and 2013, the Firm settled all of its employee
stock-based awards by issuing treasury shares.
In January 2008, the Firm awarded to its Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer up to 2 million SARs. The terms of
this award are distinct from, and more restrictive than,
other equity grants regularly awarded by the Firm. On July
15, 2014, the Compensation & Management Development
Committee and Board of Directors determined that all
requirements for the vesting of the 2 million SAR awards
had been met and thus, the awards became exercisable. The
SARs, which will expire in January 2018, have an exercise
price of $39.83 (the price of JPMorgan Chase common
stock on the date of grant). The expense related to this
award was dependent on changes in fair value of the SARs
through July 15, 2014 (the date when the vested number of
SARs were determined), and the cumulative expense was
recognized ratably over the service period, which was
initially assumed to be five years but, effective in the first
quarter of 2013, had been extended to six and one-half
years. The Firm recognized $3 million and $14 million in
compensation expense in 2014 and 2013, respectively, for
this award.