Perk in the eye
Bailed out bankers get £4bn bonus
SHAMELESS City bankers who drove Britain into recession are due to pay out BIGGER BONUSES than last year - a staggering £4BILLION.
The figures, uncovered by the News of the World, will anger taxpayers who have shelled out £37billion to rescue our failing financial system.
It will be a major embarrassment for Chancellor Alistair Darling, who vowed to stamp out the obscene bonus culture.
Britain has been crippled by the bank bailouts and struggling families will pay for years through higher taxes and spending cuts. The nation's debts could cost us a mind-boggling £1.3TRILLION if the financial system fails to recover.
Yet our bankers are back on the gravy-train as they:
SHOWER top staff with bonuses of up to £60m EACH;
DOUBLE salaries so fat cats won't lose out and
LAVISH traders with payments in shares to escape the threatened bonus curbs.
This year's £4bn bonus payout, plus billions more in share handouts, is up from an estimated £3.3bn last year, according to top think-tank the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).
Reward
Leading banks will next week reveal bumper half-year profits, angering families and firms struggling to get loans.
HSBC will disclose profits of £4bn - and Barclays will reveal a £3bn windfall. Barclays is expected to reward staff with hundreds of millions of pounds in bonuses - the highest payout of all UK banks.
And HSBC is also likely to pay millions in bonuses.
Even banks which swallowed up taxpayers' cash are gearing up for bumper handouts to staff. RBS will bounce back next week with profits of £1.5bn, after its £20bn bailout - and it is expected to pay out around £170m in bonuses.
Staff are also in line for bumper share packages to be paid over the next three years. Unbelievably, RBS chief Stephen Hester will get a £9.7m pay perk if he performs well.
Even Lloyds-TSB, which got a £17m bailout, will pay out tens of millions in bonuses.
Banks claim they have to offer bonuses to keep key staff from being poached by rivals.
And overseas banks operating in London's Square Mile are joining in the spree. Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to clamp down, giant US corporations are splashing the cash.
Goldman Sachs, bailed out with a £6bn US government loan, will pay £14bn in bonuses this year - up 50 per cent. This means the 5,500 bankers in its London office are in line for about £500,000 each.
And City workers at Morgan Stanley will enjoy bonuses of £209,000 each - up from £157,000 last year. The bailed out firm is dishing out £2.36bn on pay.
Banking giant Citigroup is hoisting pay by up to 50 per cent, despite a £13.4bn bailout. Its bonuses to key staff include £60m to British-born trader Andrew Hall, 58, who struck it rich betting on oil prices.
Financier JP Morgan is raising salaries of more than 12,000 bankers by up to 50 per cent, after a £15bn bailout. It is doling out £8.8bn to staff. And Credit Suisse has set aside £1.55bn for pay and bonuses after half-year profits rose 29 per cent to £910m. Germany's Deutsche Bank has earmarked £2.7bn for pay rises to be shared by its London workers. It is also offering multi-year guaranteed bonuses to recruit talent.
Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable slammed the bumper payouts. He stormed: "This is appalling - the money should be going to help small businesses, not lining bankers' pockets."
On Friday, City Minister Lord Myners also called for "radical" action to clean up the banks, insisting they should be forced to reveal the names and salary details of top earners.
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This article has 11 comments
I agree with Angus at the top.
Barclays Firstplus are the worst not content with ripping of the customer by making 70% on useless PPI they rip them of by uping their profit margins on the interest rates and ripped of the country by setting up there insurance abroad.
The gov got their money back how about the gov getting the peoples money.
tried posting to similar stories in the mirrior and the mail before but what a hassle glad to see you guys giving ordinary folk a voice.
By tony. Posted August 2 2009 at 9:41 PM.
Barclays should be FINED its entire profit margin, for the way in which they are screwing FIRSTPLUS customers without a single interest rate decrease.. we are on some of the HIGHEST interest rates in the industry.. and why.. well because Firstplus messed up and got hammered for the mis-selling of it PPI to which the took up to 70% in commission, they even tried to offshore it to Barclays Dublin to avoid taxes and take MORE profit.
Customers are being repossessed, while barclays are rewarding its staff for screwing the little guy even more. It was there mistakes, the likes of 125% Loan to Value Second Mortgages that are in part the cause of they financial situation..
The Government do not run this country, they are happy to take the donation form these banks in return for keeping there mouth shut.
I think next election we should vote the real governments, and vote which bank or corporation should take us through the next 4 years.
Someone should impeach the entire labour government. bunch of no good bottom feeders, and I voted for them since I was 18!!!
By Angus Doyle. Posted August 2 2009 at 3:23 PM.
The Government should have given the money directly to small businesses.They could have expanded with cash payments and kept people employed.The Banks and Energy companies only care about what profit they make for themselves.The Banks will not want the Government owning them for long.The Chancellor didn't put any restraints on the Banks when he gave them the money.
By steve. Posted August 2 2009 at 10:41 AM.
People are losing their homes,businesses around the world are going bust.But the Banks are back on top,do the Government not care about the average man on the street who struggles to pay his bills on a low wage,no expenses or bonuses for him.Disgusted!
By Angela. Posted August 2 2009 at 10:48 AM.
Now is the time for the revolution to start!
Will you stand up and be counted?
By tony. Posted August 2 2009 at 10:23 AM.
I want my money back...NOW!
By GeorgieBoy. Posted August 2 2009 at 8:44 AM.
Its we the people who let them get away with it a good old country wide strike to show the dirty thiefs who only line their own pockets why we the workers tax payers get ripped off it will never change we always sit back and let them
By ron. Posted August 2 2009 at 7:03 AM.
THE MONEY SHOULD GO STRAIGHT TO THE CHANCELLOR TO RE PAY WHAT WAS HANDED TO THE INCOMPETENT BANKS. aFTER THAT IF THEY WANT TO PAY THEMSELVES 5 BILLION EACH AND OUT OF THEIR MONEY AND ARE NOT GOING TO BANKRUPT THE COUNTRY THATS THERE GOOD FORTUNE UNTIL THHEN....... THERES A RESSESSION THAT THEY HELP CAUSE.. SO ITS NOT TIME F
By millie. Posted August 2 2009 at 6:10 AM.
I thought that after all the corruption of the mps, and the bank scandal, that all this thieving would stop, and what was it that that gutless brown said about handouts, I think it is too late for Britain, a general strike at the least is needed, britain has turned into one disgusting country through no fault of it;s people, you have got to get rid of these politicians and these bankers
By AGNES & ROBERT. Posted August 2 2009 at 4:26 AM.
Business as usual. The fat cats getting fatter. Thatcherism at its best. Robin Hood in reverse. Who cares for the poor, the sick, the old, the unemployed? The British government? Never,they,re too busy fiddling while the workers burn. Cant THEYseewhere all this is heading? People will only take so much.Time for revolution.
By David Jarvis Hendry. Posted August 2 2009 at 4:18 AM.
This is absolutley criminal!
wouldn't you think that what has happened, the money should be put back in the system mandatory,
If this goverment lets them get away with this, then they need there heads feeling.
Pay rises , big bonuses, while people can't get one penny in jobseekers, the inland revenue claw tax credits back and we sit at home pennyless waiting to lose our homes.
Welcome to britain!
By Chriso. Posted August 2 2009 at 1:26 AM.