In Defence of Bank Bonuses
Well, that's an inflammatory title, isn't it? I'll probably get lots of abusive remarks, and lots of people won't even bother to read this post because of the title. But I really feel that someone needs to set the record straight, because there is an AWFUL lot of rubbish being spouted about bankers' bonuses at the moment. The first thing to note is that banks pay bonuses to three different groups of people. From the headlines you would think that only senior bank executives receive bonuses. But two other groups also receive bonus payments: - traders - ordinary bank staff. Let's look at the bonuses paid to these three different groups of people. 1. Senior executives. These are the headline-grabbing figures. Bob Diamond (CEO of Barclays) awarded bonus of about £9m. Stephen Hester (RBS) paid a bonus of £2.04m. Eric Daniels, outgoing CEO of Lloyds, received £1.45m. Doesn't it make you see red? From the headlines you would think that these people