Should bankers repay bonuses?

mr.broderick

carolt wrote: »

On the contrary - if you spend 5 minutes on here, it's clear there are far, far too many. :eek:

Pobby i am going to point out every post like this to you in [EMAIL="future...F@@king"]future...F@@king[/EMAIL] sock puppet.

B33fy

SGE1 wrote: »

I think it's a really tough one.

Looking at it from a straightforward 'moral' perspective, bankers clearly shouldn't be earning bonuses at the moment. Simply put, they don't deserve it. Even those that are relatively junior, and were never involved in the decisions that led to the crash of the sub-prime market, should accept that their industry isn't in a position to reward them, even if they've done a decent job individually.

The problem is, if there's a major crackdown on bonuses, will those bankers we need ship off elsewhere, to banks that aren't relying on taxpayer funding? As if they do, will that mean that RBS, Lloyds etc won't have the necessary talent pool to fix the mess? And will investors lose confidence in these banks? If the answer to these questions is yes, then RBS and Lloyds' shares will have a hard time re-gaining value - and this matters to us because at the end of the day, when the Government sells off its assets, we'll make a loss rather than a profit. So technically, though we'll all they the satisfaction of knowing that employees in the banking sector had their bonuses nicked from under their nose, the taxpayer may actually be worse off. It's technically in our interest to make sure Government-supported banks do as well as possible, so that we recoup the losses and even make a profit when the shares are sold back into the private sector.

The only thing I'm not sure about is whether employees who feel slighted by withdrawn bonuses will actually move elsewhere. Given that people are generally keen to keep their jobs, and given very few alternative jobs going, particularly in the banking sector, even if staff wanted to leave RBS/Lloyds, would they be able to/find another job to go to?

But is it really a talent pool? They were involved in getting us into this mess in the first place

Pobby

mr.broderick wrote: »

Pobby i am going to point out every post like this to you in future...F@@king sock puppet.

What are you on about now?

mr.broderick

Pobby wrote: »

What are you on about now?

Sorry i have no idea think the mrs spiked my tea last night.

Pobby

mr.broderick wrote: »

Sorry i have no idea think the mrs spiked my tea last night.

Then dear sir, we shall put it behind us and forget it ever happened !:beer:

baileysbattlebus

If the bonuses are contractual I would imagine they will have to be paid, everyone at work is entitled to their contractual entitlements.

Some of these bonuses although "performance" based will also be transaction based, every time a deal was closed whether it was profitable or not would count towards the bonus.

Interestingly the BOE warned about pay and bonus structures over 10 years ago- saying it would lead to problems - but the City would have none of it. Surprise, surprise.

I would imagine if the gov't try and stop these payments there will be some form of litigation.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the US over the coming weeks.

UBS in Switzerland has already cut it's bonus pool by 80%.

To take bonuses in this current climate, to me is morally wrong, but as I said on a different thread, when have bankers and morals been used in the same sentence.

Their bonus, for the lucky ones, should be hanging on to their jobs.

nwc389

these bonus payments are paid to ALL staff at the banks from those who may have had influence over poor decisions leading to certain banks being baled out by the taxpayer to the cashiers and bank staff who deal with customers day in day out , who worked hard all year , did their best to look after their customers and believed it when they were told that their bank was fine and had no problems
Their bonus payments certainly don't match up with some of the figures being published in the press .
Should they be penalised along with their reckless bosses ?

chambta

I'll be staggered if RBS group pay any sort of 'profit share'. Yes it's been paid for years and is almost a given but surely without profit it can't exist.

What annoys me is that we haven't been told anything officially and we are left to make assumptions. The average basic salary of people in the branches is probably little more than £15,000, with many on less, so the constant referral to 'fat cat bankers' in the tabloid press is a long way from the truth.

Generali

chambta wrote: »

I'll be staggered if RBS group pay any sort of 'profit share'. Yes it's been paid for years and is almost a given but surely without profit it can't exist.

What annoys me is that we haven't been told anything officially and we are left to make assumptions. The average basic salary of people in the branches is probably little more than £15,000, with many on less, so the constant referral to 'fat cat bankers' in the tabloid press is a long way from the truth.

Obviously, everyone who has worked for a bank is not only rich but also guilty.

Fat cats, "String 'em up!"

chambta

Generali wrote: »

Obviously, everyone who has worked for a bank is not only rich but also guilty.

Fat cats, "String 'em up!"

Exactly! We should offer to work salary free for a year as punishment.