Bailed-out banks' CEOs used jets for personal use: report

June 19, 2009 (Reuters) — Chief executives of some banks that received federal money, including Bank of America Corp, Morgan Stanley and Regions Financial Corp, used company jets for their personal use, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website.

Pedestrians walk past a Bank of America branch in New York May 8, 2009. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Flight records showed many occasions when banks receiving federal money flew their planes to destinations near resorts or executives' vacation homes in Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean, south Florida and Aspen, according to the paper.

"We are implementing a new policy in 2009, under which personal use of aircraft will not be permitted," a Bank of America spokesman told the paper, but declined to comment on specific trips.

In some cases, it was clear that bank executives were traveling for personal reasons; for other flights, many of which were over weekends or holidays, the passengers and purpose couldn't be established, the paper added.

A spokesman for Morgan Stanley declined to comment to the paper on individual flights, but said its policy was to allow CEO John Mack personal use of corporate jets, with the cost "fully disclosed" in annual proxy filings.

A Regions spokesman also declined to comment to the paper on the trip or the cost estimate, but said all travel on company jets "either for personal or business was within our policy."

The banks could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.

(Reporting by Chakradhar Adusumilli in Bangalore, Editing by Ian Geoghegan)