Capital One CEO pay $17.1 mln, realizes options

NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Richard Fairbank was awarded about $17.07 million in compensation in 2007, 6 percent less than a year earlier, and realized $73.1 million from the exercise of stock options and vesting of stock, the company said on Tuesday.

In a proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Capital One said Fairbank was awarded options valued at $17 million as of the grant date, plus other compensation valued at $69,585.

Compensation is based on salary, bonus, the value of stock options and other awards granted during the year, and incentives and perks. Fairbank's compensation was about $18.15 million a year earlier, Capital One has said.

According to the proxy filing, Fairbank also realized $54.84 million from the exercise of 934,359 stock options. Capital One said Fairbank exercised the options from May 1 to Aug 31 under a pre-arranged trading plan, and that the options were set to expire on Dec 17.

The McLean, Virginia-based company also reported for Fairbank an additional $18.26 million of "value realized on vesting" of 241,680 performance shares.

It said in a footnote, however, that "delivery" of these shares will not take place until Fairbank ends his employment with the company, and that Fairbank thus "neither acquired any shares nor realized any value from (them) in 2007."

Fairbank has since 1997 given up salary and bonuses in exchange for options or performance-based shares.

Fairbank, 57, became chief executive in 1994. He has since 2005 transformed Capital One from the largest independent U.S. MasterCard and Visa card issuer into a more diversified financial services company, mainly through the acquisitions of North Fork Bancorp Inc and Hibernia Corp.

Shares of Capital One fell 38 percent last year, hurt by rising credit losses, a problem plaguing many lenders. Profit fell 35 percent to $1.57 billion, the company has said. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel;editing by Gunna Dickson)