TIMES ONLINE: Politicians rounded today on Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), the state-owned lender, over its decision to pay up to £1.7 billion in bonuses to bankers despite making a £3.6 billion loss during 2009.
The bank announced today that it would pay investments bankers from a £1.3 billion bonus pool while other staff would share in a £400 million reward.
George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said that bankers’ pay had reached “ridiculous levels”, adding: “We have just got to look at the whole banking sector and try to bring this pay down.”
RBS’s loss for the 12 months to December 31 is less than the £5 billion expected and far below the £24.3 billion loss that RBS reported for 2008, a record for any British company.
But Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said: “RBS rewarding individual bankers is like a football team paying their striker for scoring when they’ve just been relegated."
RBS is 84 per cent owned by the British taxpayer after receiving billions of pounds of rescue funds from the state during the recession to save it from collapse.
The UKFI, the body set up by the Government to manage the state’s investment in British banks, yesterday granted RBS permission to pay the bonuses. >>> Francesca Steele | Thursday, February 25, 2010
