RBS chief to get £900,000 bonus

CLAPTON

Thrugelmir wrote: »

CEO's do have their own styles. Not all treat employees, shareholders and customers alike with contempt.

Funny how not may people noticed that Fred treated employees, shareholders and customers with contempt until after the financial meltdown.
I wonder why his customers continued using the bank and why the major shareholders put up with it.

However, you have read it first here, in my view Horta Osirio treats his employees shareholders and customers with contempt. (so you are ahead of the field now).

Thrugelmir

CLAPTON wrote: »

Funny how not may people noticed that Fred treated employees, shareholders and customers with contempt until after the financial meltdown.
I wonder why his customers continued using the bank and why the major shareholders put up with it.

Media image. Until you deal with people face to face never judge them.

Emy1501

kabayiri wrote: »

Actually, RBS is one of the ultimate expressions of goodwill and good faith shown by the UK taxpayer in a corporate institution.

In their hour of need, we bailed them out to the tune of billions and billions. This level of generosity has never been seen towards any other industry.

It is very much a special case. I'd support deferred bonuses definitely...once the taxpayers get their money back.

He wasnt in charge when RBS got in trouble and had a pretty decent job before took on the job. I suspect he could walk out tomorrow and earn more than he is on so what got faith does he need to show. Also the UK taxpayer did not pump money into RBS as goodwill is was because it was at the time in their opinion the best option.

I have no problem with letting the guy go and bringing in someone on 200k. The issue is that if the person comes in and fails then it could 42billion plus a lot more down the drain.

Thrugelmir

Emy1501 wrote: »

I have no problem with letting the guy go and bringing in someone on 200k.

Would anybody be sane enough to take the job at that salary level?

Hester already has a excellent track record and was head hunted to turnaround RBS.

Personally I feel for him. As it must be a 24/7 job, and no thanks to boot.

vivatifosi

CLAPTON wrote: »

I wonder why his customers continued using the bank and why the major shareholders put up with it.

Prior to the financial meltdown I doubt people the customers thought much about it. Now I would imagine that people who have lots of money have spread it around so as to mitigate risk.

In terms of shareholders, I don't know about individual shareholders, but I think at that stage pension fund trustees were relatively passive as long as their investments performed ok. I think we will see more active involvement on the part of smaller institutional shareholders, but I don't think we're there yet.

Kennyboy66

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Would anybody be sane enough to take the job at that salary level?

Hester already has a excellent track record and was head hunted to turnaround RBS.

Personally I feel for him. As it must be a 24/7 job, and no thanks to boot.

I think he can accept taking stick from Labour in opposition, he must be livid about the Mayor of the biggest financial centre in the world using his bonus in such a nakedly political way.

julieq

There's a bit of confused thinking here. Hester's job is essentially to reduce the cost of the bailout, most of which hasn't accrued, being loans or loan guarantees.

Saying something like "we've paid all that money in bailouts and he's taking it in bonuses" misses that point. While Hester is taking bonuses, the accrued cost of the bailout is decreasing by many times more than what he costs. There's still a possibility of a taxpayer profit overall too.

Bank bashing is unfortunately easy for everyone. The current government can blame the last one for not setting up different remuneration packages, the last government can whine about how the bankers should be paying more in tax to fill the hole they created by overspending, occupy and their rich celebrity supporters can tweet to their hearts' content about being the 99%, and Joe Public (here ably represented by our own inimitable Graham Devon) can talk witlessly about soldiers and hard working nurses and how much the bailout has cost everyone to general approbation.

Had Hester taken this job and failed - and it could have been a poisoned chalice - he'd have been chased out by a pitchfork wielding mob and probably faced calls to have his pension removed, golden handshake reduced, and first born child burned at the stake. Having done a decent job from a very uncertain position, he's absolutely entitled to the bonus he's earned as part of his package. He appears to be a decent man who knows about hard work, and a long way from the egomania of someone like Goodwin. So give the poor s0d a chance.

Fella

julieq wrote: »

and Joe Public (here ably represented by our own inimitable Graham Devon) can talk witlessly about blah blah .

Last time I looked Graham Devon generally spoke very good sense. As opposed to the opionated & often horribly innaccurate bile you like to spit out.

kabayiri

For me there are 2 issues :-
a) the bonus Mr Hester receives being excessive
b) the impression this level of bonus projects to the public at large.

Personally, I can cope with a). Yeah, I'd have rather it be deferred, because nothing has actually been fully achieved yet; RBS share price is still dismally low. However, his contract probably indicates he his entitled to it.

The second issue is the one for me. If I see another teacher or Railway Union official justify their salary or pension rights or pay demands by referring to the 'bankers' I'll scream.

Thanks to the poor PR generated by a small bunch of investment bankers and directors, it's going to be twice as hard to get people to accept wage restraint and reform.

So, err, thanks again

CLAPTON

kabayiri wrote: »

For me there are 2 issues :-
a) the bonus Mr Hester receives being excessive
b) the impression this level of bonus projects to the public at large.

Personally, I can cope with a). Yeah, I'd have rather it be deferred, because nothing has actually been fully achieved yet; RBS share price is still dismally low. However, his contract probably indicates he his entitled to it.

The second issue is the one for me. If I see another teacher or Railway Union official justify their salary or pension rights or pay demands by referring to the 'bankers' I'll scream.

Thanks to the poor PR generated by a small bunch of investment bankers and directors, it's going to be twice as hard to get people to accept wage restraint and reform.

So, err, thanks again

a) well for the record the bonus is in RBS shares that can't be cashed until 2014

b) the 'PR' has been generated by Dave, Nick and Ed with a bit of help from their mates George, Vince and Yvette but that doesn't justify mob rule


never let the facts get in the way of a good story