UK finance sector bonuses to top £100bn since financial crisis | Business. Bonuses paid out by banks and insurers since the start of the financial crisis are set to top £100bn this year, according to the Robin Hood Tax campaign. As this year’s bonus season is in full swing, the campaigners analysed data from the Office for National Statistics. It shows that bonuses paid out in the financial sector have reached £91bn since October 2007. This figure is likely to exceed £100bn by the end of March, the end of the financial year. This equates to £1,500 for every man, woman and child in the UK. David Hillman of the Robin Hood Tax campaign, a group of 119 UK organisations including Barnardo’s, Comic Relief, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, Stamp Out Poverty and the TUC, said: “This eye-popping sum is evidence we live in a two-tier Britain where an unreformed financial sector continues to pocket huge rewards while the rest of us are left to clear up their mess.
The UK has opposed the tax, arguing that it would damage the City of London. The Co-op Bank made mistakes but we will never lose our ethics | Niall Booker. In 1844 a group of people, fed up with the milk they bought being watered down, chalk being added to bulk out flour and even gravel added to oatmeal, got together and decided to buy and sell the things they needed themselves. From that moment the cooperative movement that they formed has, with the Co-operative Bank, which was set up afterwards, delivered massive benefits to the communities it serves and the people it employs.
Today, the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, argues for banks to rebuild the social capital that is an essential foundation of our society. The pioneering approach of the Co-op's past can help us answer some of Carney's questions. Banks have gone from being one of the institutions we trust the most to one that politicians and the media criticise the most. Further failure is not an option. We have lost the savings habit in this country and yet the burden on future generations requires higher saving. The Co-operative Bank is no different.
Questions over Royal Mail sale raise more for the Post Office | Lindsay Mackie. Today MPs on the business, innovation and skills select committee will have the chance to quiz Goldman Sachs and UBS about whether or not the advice they gave the government on the sale value of Royal Mail was sound, or so wrong that it came close to negligence. And customers across the country wanting to use the 373 crown post offices will find them closed this afternoon because of strike action. The two events are closely related. They are taking place because of fears that both institutions are being so badly handled that their futures are in jeopardy. Take Royal Mail. It's now a truism that it was undervalued. Shares sold for 330p are now selling at 550p – a total difference in market valuation of a stonking £2.2bn. The chatter around the sale was remarkably light on the "need for private investment in Royal Mail" (the government's mantra since 2010) and rather more concerned with share value.
That was 2010. Rporate power has turned Britain into a corrupt state | Seumas Milne. If you're under attack, create a diversion. David Cameron and Nick Clegg have been floundering as the spectre of Westminster sleaze has returned to haunt them. Four years after the MPs' expenses scandal engulfed British politics, yet another alleged scam has been exposed. First a Tory MP and then a clutch of greedy peers were caught on camera apparently agreeing to take cash from journalists posing as representatives of foreign companies.
"Make that £12,000 a month," grinned Jack Cunningham, Tony Blair's former "enforcer". Cameron and Clegg had promised to deal with parliamentary influence-peddling, and done nothing about it. So on Monday they came up with a plan: to crack down on trade unions. Wrapped in a panic bill to set up a register of lobbyists are to be powers to police union membership lists and cut union spending in election campaigns. The contemptuous class cynicism of the coalition leaders' response takes some beating. That's before you get to the politicians. Bonuses: the essential guide | Business. 1. The issue at a glance2. Why is it being talked about now? 3. A brief history4. 1. Bank bonuses have long been a cause of controversy but this has intensified since the financial crisis struck in 2008.
. • Back to the top 2. The European Union has agreed on moves to slash the bonuses that may be paid to bankers, capping the payments at a year's salary – although there is a proviso that the bonus could be doubled subject to majority shareholder approval. The legislation is highly complex and has been four years in gestation. 3. Many of the world's largest banks started out life as partnerships, owned by senior staff and with the lending risk held on the balance sheet. Some partners feared that going public would render them little more than wage slaves, but bankers were able to strike profit-sharing bargains with their new shareholders, ensuring they remained very well rewarded, especially in times of booming profits. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Cap: a ceiling put on payments. Is it a done deal? The wrecking of Barclays is one of organised looting by those at the very top | Aditya Chakrabortty. You'd have learned precious little from watching Bob Diamond in parliament last week – apart, that is, from his love for his former employer.
If pressed, you or I might admit to tolerating our jobs, to getting on with colleagues or, at the very least, to taking full advantage of the company stationery supplies. For the multimillionaire banker, however, this would be mere watery equivocation. The firm that had forced him out just the day before was "an amazing place", packed with "wonderful people". And, he told MPs over and over: "I love Barclays. " Sadly, no one asked the obvious follow-up: if that's how you treat organisations you admire, what on earth becomes of the ones you dislike? This transformation hasn't helped the Treasury, which is now forced to chase the bank for taxes. If this were a tale involving just a single boutique bank, you could chalk it up as a dreadful shame. Except the fat cats are very small in number.
Banking keeps getting away with it, just as the unions did | Simon Jenkins. Too big to fail … now too big to jail? There seems no end to the immunity – moral, political, fiscal and possibly legal – claimed by the present masters of the universe, the bankers. In a side-splitting, coffee-spluttering radio interview today, Martin Taylor, the former chief executive of Barclays, mused that his old board might consider the best person to "turn the page" on the bank's latest scandal might be none other than its author and present chief executive, Bob Diamond.
That is presumably despite the bank being fined £290m and pending possible charges of fraud. Diamond has "taken responsibility" for the division that from 2005 onwards manipulated inter-bank loans so as to disguise the bank's vulnerability in the runup to the 2008 credit crunch. The clear intention was to mislead the market and enrich bank staff with bonuses.
Responsibility apparently means Diamond "giving up" a bonus which, surely, he has yet to earn. Lloyds to seize back bonuses from 10 senior bankers | Business. Former Lloyds chief executive Eric Daniels is one of the bankers who will be affected by the adjustment to the bonus pot Photograph: Lloyds Banking Group/PA Lloyds Banking Group is to announce that it intends to "claw back" bonuses from as many as 10 senior bankers because of the £3.2bn losses that the bailed-out bank suffered after the payouts were awarded a year ago. Between 40% and 50% of the bonus pot is thought to be at risk. Details were still being finalised on Sunday night and the figure could drop as low as 25% – which may not satisfy some critics who will question why any bonuses should be paid out at all after the bank took the losses to cover the misselling of payment protection insurance (PPI). Among those facing the consequences of the adjustment of the bonus pot caused by the PPI scandal are the former chief executive Eric Daniels and his closest lieutenants, some of whom have left the bank since his departure a year ago.
Charlie Brooker: The true value of money – or why you can't fart a crashing plane back into the sky. What does Stephen Hester do in his office? Pull levers? Chase numbers around with a broom? God knows. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga /Rex I'm no financial expert. Money is broken, and until we admit that, any attempts to fix the economy seem doomed to fail. Banknotes aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The entire economy relies on the suspension of disbelief.
No one really understands how it all works: if they did, we wouldn't be in this mess. The chief difference is that slot machines are more familiar and graspable to most of us. The recent outrage over City bonuses stems from a combination of two factors: the sheer size of the numbers involved coupled with a lack of respect for the work involved in earning them. Similarly, it may be tasteless when a rapper pops up on MTV wearing so much bling he might as well have dipped himself in glue and jumped into a treasure chest full of vajazzling crystals, but at least you understand how he earned it.
RBS boss Stephen Hester rejects £1m bonus. 30 January 2012Last updated at 11:07 Ed Miliband: "The government has got a completely tin ear when it comes to understanding what people are feeling" Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester has turned down his controversial bonus, worth nearly £1m. BBC business editor Robert Peston said Mr Hester would renounce the £963,000 shares-only payment after succumbing to "enormous political pressure". Chancellor George Osborne said it was a "sensible and welcome" decision that now let Mr Hester focus on getting back billions of pounds for the taxpayer.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the RBS boss had "done the right thing". Earlier, Labour said it would force a vote on the issue after Prime Minister David Cameron refused to block the bonus from the mostly publicly-owned bank. 'Out of touch' Robert Peston said the board felt Mr Hester had earned the bonus for the way he had made RBS a less risky organisation. Continue reading the main story Analysis Robert PestonBusiness editor, BBC News. RBS chairman turns down £1.4m share bonus. One day after RBS chief executive Stephen Hester is awarded a £930,00 bonus, it emerges Sir Philip Hampton, the bank's chairman, is to turn down a share-based bonus worth £1.4m. A spokesman for the bank, in which the British government holds a majority stake, said: "Sir Philip Hampton will not receive the 5.17 million shares he was awarded in 2009 when he joined RBS. " Sir Philip is said to have told the bank's remuneration committee it would not be appropriate for him to take the shares to which he is entitled.
In 2010 Philip Hampton received a basic salary of £750,000, with no extra performance bonus or additional benefits. 'Up to Mr Hester' Today's announcement comes after the controversy surrounding the decision to award a £963,000 bonus to Stephen Hester, the bank's chief executive, on top of his £1.2m salary. Mr Hester has faced calls from politicians, unions and the public to turn down the award. Read more: Are bankers worth their weight in gold? 'It's his decision' Results season. In defence of Stephen Hester's £963,000 bonus | James Ball.
In an increasingly rare sign of unity, the British nation has come together in outrage at the £963,000 bonus due to Stephen Hester, the chief executive of RBS – a bank 83% owned by the UK taxpayer. In a nation with a median income of just £26,000 facing a decade of austerity measures, unemployment and government cuts, it's no surprise such a significant bonus on top of a £1.2m salary has attracted such ire. The broader questions, however, are whether Stephen Hester deserves to be such a national hate figure – and whether curtailing his pay benefits the UK taxpayer.
The answers are perhaps less obvious than the national mood would suggest. How might a defender/apologist (delete as appropriate) try to justify Hester's bonus? There are a few ways. The first is to note that as far as bankers go, Hester is relatively blameless. As a general principle, we would rarely seek to punish a chief executive for their predecessor's mistakes.
We have a choice. RBS boss bonus causes slight increase in taxpayers tutting. The levels of dissatisfaction caused by the hefty payout have led to numerous displays of shortlived contempt by taxpayers such as muttering obscenities under their breath, shaking their head and sighing. Hester, who insists that he is definitely worth the bonus, has claimed that the rebuilding of RBS is entirely down to his expert guidance, and nothing at all to do with the bailout. “It’s outrageous that RBS are handing out bonuses of this magnitude when they’re making job cuts and people everywhere are suffering,” said one temporarily disgruntled taxpayer. “Anyway, I’m putting the kettle on. Fancy a brew?” They added. Hester bonus There was also some mild huffing after a Conservative Party spokesman revealed that the government is pleased with the size of the bonus. “It’s bloody typical of this government!” “They go on that we’re all in it together, but when it boils down to it………sorry, what was I talking about again?”
“Go back to sleep Britain,” he advised.