In one sense, it still looks like business as usual when it comes to executives hauling in huge severance packages.
For example, Wallace D. Malone Jr., the chief executive officer of SouthTrust Corp., is entitled to $59 million in termination awards, stock awards, and options over the next five years if he leaves the Birmingham-based regional bank after he completes the sale of the bank to Wachovia for $13.7 billion, according to a recent New York Times report.
