Banksters To Pay Out £7,000,000,000 Bonuses

[Realistbear]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8234359/Banks-plead-for-guidance-on-bonuses-set-to-total-7bn.html

Banks plead for guidance on bonuses set to total £7bn

Senior bankers have asked the Government for immediate guidance on how, and at what level, year-end bonuses can be paid amid growing confusion about increasing layers of regulation overlaying compensation in the financial services sector.

I could think of some decent charities that could do with £7 billion. Or perhaps paying back the public purse before any bonuses are paid. Or how about cancelling the petrol duty and use the £7bn to cover that shortfall.

Oh how easily the ideas flow...........................

[Snugglybear]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8234359/Banks-plead-for-guidance-on-bonuses-set-to-total-7bn.html

Banks plead for guidance on bonuses set to total £7bn

Senior bankers have asked the Government for immediate guidance on how, and at what level, year-end bonuses can be paid amid growing confusion about increasing layers of regulation overlaying compensation in the financial services sector.

I could think of some decent charities that could do with £7 billion. Or perhaps paying back the public purse before any bonuses are paid. Or how about cancelling the petrol duty and use the £7bn to cover that shortfall.

Oh how easily the ideas flow...........................

And how readily any and all of them will appeal to George. Not.

[athom]

how many bankers share this £7,000,000,000? If it's less than a million of them i'm seriously pissed.

[R K]

Oh Osborne!

Come out, come out wherever you are!

(on the phone to Messrs Rothschild in Corfu no doubt)

"Hello, is that the official receiver? Banksters here. You remember we went bankrupt a while ago due to our own hubris, greed and complete lack of integrity and needed a trillion of other people's money to keep going? Well, good news! We've managed to fiddle the books and it now appears we've actually made some money back. Anyway, I'm just ringing to check it's ok to pay ourselves £7,000,000,000 so we can go on a spending binge on top end houses no one else can afford, outrageously expensive motors, East European hookers, the best colombian, and oh I don't know, anything else we can think of. Stupid plebs won't mind will they? An answer by tomorrow will be fine. Thanks Osborne........Your friends always, banksters"

Edited January 2, 2011 by Red Karma

[Bloo Loo]

AFAIK, RBS alone LOST 21BN since April 2010.

it is being supported to prevent a SYSTEMIC cascading collapse.

the market in banking is being held up by the taxpayer 100%...according to the banker doomongers....tanks in the streets if we dont pay up.

ERGO...bankers have made no money at all and bonuses are OUT OF ORDER.

Salaries over £100K...are OUT OF ORDER.

they are bust...as a species....finito.

its time they were put in their place.

I, for one, will be taking my overdraft elsewhere.

[Snugglybear]

AFAIK, RBS alone LOST 21BN since April 2010.

it is being supported to prevent a SYSTEMIC cascading collapse.

the market in banking is being held up by the taxpayer 100%...according to the banker doomongers....tanks in the streets if we dont pay up.

ERGO...bankers have made no money at all and bonuses are OUT OF ORDER.

Salaries over £100K...are OUT OF ORDER.

they are bust...as a species....finito.

its time they were put in their place.

Totally agree, but

I, for one, will be taking my overdraft elsewhere.

I've tried to do that twice, only the bustards wouldn't let me.

[Realistbear]

how many bankers share this £7,000,000,000? If it's less than a million of them i'm seriously pissed.

I suspect it is FAR less than 1 million. The big bonuese only go to the top members and I would guesstimate we are talking a few hundred people--tops.

As Bloo Loo points out, many if not most are being paid on the basis of losses made by the bank. If money changes hands--it is bonusable. Profit or loss--machs nicht.

[Sour Mash]

Brilliant news - obviously any bank that's able to pay out bonuses to its clever staff no longer needs to be in receipt of any public support and therefore said support can be immediately withdrawn, saving the public money and removing the burden of risk from the taxpayer.

[Giordano Bruno]

Brilliant news - obviously any bank that's able to pay out bonuses to its clever staff no longer needs to be in receipt of any public support and therefore said support can be immediately withdrawn, saving the public money and removing the burden of risk from the taxpayer.

Absolutely. Deserves a bump.

[Democorruptcy]

Shouldn't the countries with solvent banks pay our bankers their bonuses?

I mean, would you want those bankers to leave the UK and come to your country?

[@contradevian]

I don't believe these bonuses are "contractually obligated." My experience as an employee suggested that contracts of employment can be renegotiated at whim by employers. Why are these bankers so special?

[Realistbear]

I don't believe these bonuses are "contractually obligated." My experience as an employee suggested that contracts of employment can be renegotiated at whim by employers. Why are these bankers so special?

They have built-in accountability to no one but themselves. A very special and privileged position to be in.

[IBlewItLastTime]

They have built-in accountability to no one but themselves. A very special and privileged position to be in.

This is a great "I'm really cross argument", but its completely wrong.

The reason these ar$eholes get paid so much is either because its contractually agreed (ie quasi salary) or because they've made big profits.

The way it works is "either you pay me pots of money, or I'm off", so you pay the obnoxious little prat.

Their accountability has never been in your control more than it is now. Your government employs them and you have the power to lobby and vote.

Your government also bailed them out and I will stick my head above the parapet and say that, in the interests of moral hazard, we should have let RBS collapse, let several London institutions follow, have a sterling crisis, and rebuild from the bottom up. I take it you agree?

[mel in w9]

I live in London. Personally, with all the small businesses I see shutting up shop all over the city, I cannot for the life of me comprehend how the Financial industry benefits this city.

They obviously aren't lending. I suspect they account for a small fraction of the employed in the city. I know many of them are expatriates and pay no tax here anyway.

Let them leave, I say.... PLEASE

[Protect Rural England]

I live in London. Personally, with all the small businesses I see shutting up shop all over the city, I cannot for the life of me comprehend how the Financial industry benefits this city.

They obviously aren't lending. I suspect they account for a small fraction of the employed in the city. I know many of them are expatriates and pay no tax here anyway.

Let them leave, I say.... PLEASE

The smart ones have already gone.

The older, the inexperienced, underqualified, those with families, passport restrictions - they're all stuck here.

I'm one of them. I'd go if I were able.

If you think it bad now, wait until all is gone. You'll rue the day.

Do I believe the banks were worth saving? No. Why? Because I'm a capitalist. If the banks had not been saved there might well have been implosion in this Country.

[Dorkins]

how many bankers share this £7,000,000,000? If it's less than a million of them i'm seriously pissed.

There are around 250k-300k people who work in the City.

[Constable]

I live in London. Personally, with all the small businesses I see shutting up shop all over the city, I cannot for the life of me comprehend how the Financial industry benefits this city.

They obviously aren't lending. I suspect they account for a small fraction of the employed in the city. I know many of them are expatriates and pay no tax here anyway.

Let them leave, I say.... PLEASE

+1

The banksters get away with this fraudulent argument that they are somehow the lifeblood of London and that things would collapse without them.

IMO the City, London and the whole country would be better off without these leeches. Let them go to Geneva. Good riddance.

We'd do just fine without them, and the economy would rebalance as required, asset prices would adjust downwards, and the UK might just become a competitive place to do business again.

Cleaners worth more to society than bankers, says thinktank.

[Bloo Loo]

There are around 250k-300k people who work in the City.

And the total cost to employ all these is????

our survey said....£2 trillion in bailouts.

[bmf]

The banking sector needs reforming, it needs to be isolated from the real economy and it needs regulating by people who aren't yes-men. People say banking doesn't produce anything. I agree. It simply skims money off economies and also performs useful distribution of investments when it works well. What people have to realize though is that it it's international. It skims off economies all over the world. Because of this, when working properly, it creates a lot of wealth for an economy that doesn't have many other cards to play. Therefore I think we would be crazy to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Are banks really receiving public support any more? I think the government is just a shareholder in a couple, so they are investors but not injecting cash to keep them afloat. What they are doing for all banks is propping up the system with low interest rates so we don't have to have a second wave of defaults causing another banking crisis. This is down to silly lending but also silly borrowing by the public. These two behaviours are at the core of why as a country we are struggling.

I think that banks have a lot of the blame in the crisis but if we just say it's just a bunch of spivs lighting cigars with fifties, which is nice and easy to do and everyone can chime in with banker hatred, then we miss the wider points about borrowing, working hard to create real wealth and accepting responsibility for our actions. The banking crisis in this country has it's roots in the general population's willingness to borrow our children's future for their today. We have the same crisis in the public sector around pension ponzi schemes. Banking is really a mirror and we need to look into it unflinchingly if we are to reform this mess for our kids!

[Bloo Loo]

The banking sector needs reforming, it needs to be isolated from the real economy and it needs regulating by people who aren't yes-men. People say banking doesn't produce anything. I agree. It simply skims money off economies and also performs useful distribution of investments when it works well. What people have to realize though is that it it's international. It skims off economies all over the world. Because of this, when working properly, it creates a lot of wealth for an economy that doesn't have many other cards to play. Therefore I think we would be crazy to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Are banks really receiving public support any more? I think the government is just a shareholder in a couple, so they are investors but not injecting cash to keep them afloat. What they are doing for all banks is propping up the system with low interest rates so we don't have to have a second wave of defaults causing another banking crisis. This is down to silly lending but also silly borrowing by the public. These two behaviours are at the core of why as a country we are struggling.

I think that banks have a lot of the blame in the crisis but if we just say it's just a bunch of spivs lighting cigars with fifties, which is nice and easy to do and everyone can chime in with banker hatred, then we miss the wider points about borrowing, working hard to create real wealth and accepting responsibility for our actions. The banking crisis in this country has it's roots in the general population's willingness to borrow our children's future for their today. We have the same crisis in the public sector around pension ponzi schemes. Banking is really a mirror and we need to look into it unflinchingly if we are to reform this mess for our kids!

forgive them, for they knowed not what they dided.

[bmf]

And the total cost to employ all these is????

our survey said....£2 trillion in bailouts.

I think people need to see that the bailouts were not just spent on banker bonuses. The bonuses are the thin end of the wedge. Much of the losses made on banking are due to bad loans made to home owners. These loans were paid out years ago and people have spent the money and then failed to pay it back. But this money wasn't spent by the bankers. They got commission on the loan, yes, but this is a small fraction of the value of the loan. Most of it went into the economy and was spent on non-productive assets such as housing, holidays, stuff from China etc. The UK population have spent tomorrow's money today, and it's gone.

Given the above banks are culpable for poor risk assessment (and this was driven by greed). But so are the population at large for living beyond their means, borrowing too much and voting for more spending at every turn.

BTW most banks are "solvent" so long as property doesn't collapse. If it does this will not just hit home owners, but also anyone who has a pension. It's all interconnected which is why it's such a mess. I don't own a house but I am a saver and have a pension so sadly for me I'm getting sucked into this, like it or not.

[bmf]

forgive them, for they knowed not what they dided.

That wasn't what I said and it doesn't really address any of the points I made.

[mightytharg]

I don't believe these bonuses are "contractually obligated." My experience as an employee suggested that contracts of employment can be renegotiated at whim by employers. Why are these bankers so special?

I imagine it's because we're they're cleverer than you and have better lawyers.

[bmf]

I imagine it's because we're they're cleverer than you and have better lawyers.

I don't think many individuals would take a large bank to court. Most likely they have the "bonus" written into their contract as a condition of joining.

[Constable]

The banking sector needs reforming, it needs to be isolated from the real economy and it needs regulating by people who aren't yes-men. People say banking doesn't produce anything. I agree. It simply skims money off economies and also performs useful distribution of investments when it works well. What people have to realize though is that it it's international. It skims off economies all over the world. Because of this, when working properly, it creates a lot of wealth for an economy that doesn't have many other cards to play. Therefore I think we would be crazy to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Are banks really receiving public support any more? I think the government is just a shareholder in a couple, so they are investors but not injecting cash to keep them afloat. What they are doing for all banks is propping up the system with low interest rates so we don't have to have a second wave of defaults causing another banking crisis. This is down to silly lending but also silly borrowing by the public. These two behaviours are at the core of why as a country we are struggling.

I think that banks have a lot of the blame in the crisis but if we just say it's just a bunch of spivs lighting cigars with fifties, which is nice and easy to do and everyone can chime in with banker hatred, then we miss the wider points about borrowing, working hard to create real wealth and accepting responsibility for our actions. The banking crisis in this country has it's roots in the general population's willingness to borrow our children's future for their today. We have the same crisis in the public sector around pension ponzi schemes. Banking is really a mirror and we need to look into it unflinchingly if we are to reform this mess for our kids!

You miss the point. It's not the direct support that the banks have had, it's the indirect support (free money, guarantees, and having to try to keep their ponzi schemes afloat so that the whole country doesn't collapse with them). Banking creates NO wealth.

Watch the 5 lessons here starting with this one. Debunking Money (#1): Money, Myth, and Machiavelli.