Richard Fuld, chairman and chief executive of Lehman Brothers, who received the highest declared cash bonus on Wall Street last year took home almost $40m (€30.5m) after exercising $13.9m worth of share options. Cashing in share options lifted the take-home package of Joseph Gregory, Lehman's chief operating officer, to more than $50m.

Gregory exercised $31.5m in share options last year on top of his $20.5m salary package which included a $9m bonus.