By Trevor Hunnicutt
NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc, the world's largest asset manager, cut total compensation for Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink by 1 percent in 2016, according to a filing on Thursday.
Fink was awarded $25.5 million in compensation last year, compared with $25.8 million in 2015, based on a calculation of his pay in line with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines.
But the BlackRock board committee that oversees compensation said Fink's pay for the year declined "modestly," by 2 percent, according to its calculations. Those figures differ because BlackRock reports some incentive pay in a different year.
The company's president, Rob Kapito, was paid $19.6 million, according to the calculations required by regulators. Both Kapito and Fink were among BlackRock's founders in 1988.
BlackRock earlier cut its annual employee bonuses by 2 to 4 percent for 2016, according to a person familiar with the matter
BlackRock's stock rose 11.8 percent in price terms during 2016. That compares to an 8.4 percent rise for a Thomson Reuters index that includes 26 of its industry rivals in the United States.
Net income of New York-based BlackRock fell 5 percent in 2016 to nearly $3.2 billion even as assets the company managed grew by 11 percent to $5.1 trillion.
Investment managers have been pressured by a move to lower-cost funds.
BlackRock's iShares unit, which offers relatively low-fee exchange-traded funds that track the markets, reeled in $140 billion last year.
Fink is often quoted for his views on the markets and corporate governance, and is listed among "The World's Best CEOs" by the newspaper Barron's.
The company is slated to report first-quarter earnings next week. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Tom Brown and Chris Reese)
