Bruce Willis se met au service d'une banque russe
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: PUBLICITÉ | L'acteur américain Bruce Willis est depuis mercredi le visage de la campagne publicitaire de la banque russe Trust, a annoncé la compagnie dans un communiqué.

Dans cette publicité pour l'instant limitée à l'internet, le visage de l'acteur spécialiste des films d'action est accompagné d'une phrase: "Trust est comme moi, sauf que c'est une banque".

"L'image de Bruce Willis est celle d'un homme respectable, sur lequel on peut compter", relève la banque dans un communiqué, précisant s'être payé les services de l'acteur pour un an. >>> AFP | Mercredi 24 Novembre 2010

Outrage as New Lloyds Bank Chief Executive in Line for £8.3m Benefits Package
MAIL ONLINE: Antonio Horta-Osorio has been named the new chief executive of taxpayer-backed Lloyds bank.

Mr Horta Osorio, the current UK boss of Santander, will join early next year when he takes over from current chief Eric Daniels, who is due to retire.

However the arrival package he will receive on his appointment has provoked outrage as he could scoop up to a whopping £8.3million in the first year alone.

His package includes a basic salary of just over £1million, but he could collect another £2.3million in annual bonuses plus around £4.3million in long term share awards.

In addition he will pay £610,000 in pension payments, meaning his total package could added up to £8.3million. >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Liberal Democrats Call for Draconian Tax on Bank Bonuses
THE GUARDIAN: • Lord Oakeshott calls for immediate tax
• £7bn expected to be paid out in bonuses this year
• RBS chairman says regulation the only route to reform

A new, more draconian tax on bonuses should be slapped on banks, a leading Liberal Democrat said tonight after the Royal Bank of Scotland chairman admitted that regulation was the only way to restrain the annual bonanza for bankers.

Amid estimates that the City would pay out £7bn in bonuses this year, Lord Oakeshott said the moment had now come to reintroduce a tax on bonuses which, when imposed on the banks last year, brought in £3.5bn for the exchequer.

Oakeshott, a Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, said that the situation was so grave that the government would need to act ahead of the report next year by its independent commission on banking – chaired by Sir John Vickers.

Speaking after David Cameron acknowledged the public's "anger" over bonuses, Oakeshott said: "As the prime minister has made clear, the banks are still paying ever bigger bonuses and not lending to small businesses.

"The answer must be to take immediate action on bonuses and the obvious way is to have a much tougher bonus tax than Labour's feeble feather-duster and much stricter net lending targets to small and medium-sized businesses while we wait for the banking commission to recommend more radical reform." >>> Jill Treanor | Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Conservative Party in Hock to City, Says Nick Clegg
THE GUARDIAN: Liberal Democrats say Tories' financial dependence on bankers has quadrupled under David Cameron

Nick Clegg will today accuse the Tories of being "completely in hock to the City" as he says the party has quadrupled its dependence on funding from the sector since David Cameron became leader.

Figures produced by the Liberal Democrats today show the Tories have raised more than £15m from companies and individuals connected to the City since Cameron was elected leader in 2005.

The party accepted just £3.9m from the City between 2001 and Cameron becoming leader. Half of the City donors were not recorded donors before then.

Ten percent of the Tory candidates in the coming election are bankers or have worked in the sector, compared with 1.5% of the country as a whole. >>> Patrick Wintour | Monday, May 03, 2010

Osborne Walks a Fine Bank Line
British opposition Conservative party Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, delivered his address to delegates at the Institute of Directors Annual Convention in London on April 28, 2010. Photo: The Wall Street Journal
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: The U.K.'s Conservatives are bashing banks in public. Behind the scenes, though, they're striking a more conciliatory tone with London's financial community.

George Osborne, the Conservatives' candidate to become Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been reaching out to top U.K. bankers to assure them that, despite the party's populist rhetoric, a Conservative government won't declare war on banks, according to people who have heard his pitch. >>> David Enrich and Alistair MacDonald | Monday, May 03, 2010

After bailout, the Barclays Bank Chief’s pay? £63m! And I bet the man's worth every penny! – Mark

New Global 'FAT' Tax to Rein in Banks
THE GUARDIAN: Gordon Brown claims credit for International Monetary Fund plan to impose tough levy on biggest banks' profits and pay

Tough proposals to cut the world's biggest banks down to size by taxing their profits and pay were outlined by the International Monetary Fund tonight in an attempt to spare taxpayers another massive public bailout of the financial sector.

In measures more stringent than Wall Street and the City had expected, the fund called for the introduction of a twin-track approach to the three-year banking crisis that would both force firms to pay for any future support packages and raise new taxes on their profits and remuneration.

The report, prepared by the Washington-based institution for the G20 group of developed and developing nations, was seized upon by Gordon Brown as evidence that his push for an international crackdown on the banking sector was gaining support.

Leaked in advance of the fund's meeting this weekend, the blueprint emerged as the investment bank Goldman Sachs released better than expected first quarter revenues and admitted its bonus and pay pool had reached $5.5bn (£3.3bn) in the first three months of 2010.

The anticipated study called for a financial stability contribution (FSC), which should be paid by all financial institutions, not just banks, and used to bail out weak and failing firms. It would initially be paid at a flat rate but eventually be tailored to suit institutions' size and riskiness.

While banks had been braced for the FSC plan, they were caught unawares by the proposal for a financial activities tax (FAT), which would be based on the profits and the pay structure of the firms. >>> Larry Elliott, Jill Treanor and Patrick Wintour | Tuesday, April 20, 2010

British Banker Could Face Death Over Fraud Charges
THE TELEGRAPH: A multi-millionaire British citizen is facing a potential death sentence in Indonesia on charges of corruption and fraud relating to the controversial collapse of one of the country's leading banks.

Rafat Ali Rizvi, inset, has been accused of stealing assets from Bank Century. Photo: The Telegraph
Rafat Ali Rizvi, 49, who grew up and went to university in the UK, has been accused of stealing assets from Bank Century after it was rescued from collapse by the state in November 2008 with $670m (£430m) of taxpayers' money.

Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for Mr Rizvi at Indonesia's request but he remains at large, splitting his time between the UK, where he has a property on London's Park Lane, and Singapore. Neither country has an extradition agreement with Indonesia.

Mr Rivzi, believed to be worth around $600m, protests his innocence but friends say he fears standing trial in Indonesia because the Bank Century case has become highly political. Investigations have been launched into the original bail-out as well as alleged corruption surrounding the case.

According to Mr Rivzi's lawyers, he believes he will be made a scapegoat for the bank's failure. >>> Philip Aldrick | Saturday, February 06, 2010

Bankers Are ‘Socially Useless’, Declares Head of City Watchdog
DAILY MAIL: The head of the financial watchdog has launched a stinging attack on bankers, mocking City traders and attacking their refusal to accept that the industry needs radical change.

Just weeks after declaring much of bankers' work 'socially useless', Lord Turner delivered a new broadside at a Mansion House banquet last night attended by the great and good of the Square Mile.

He told them the industry's collapse had been 'cooked up' on trading floors where workers earned exorbitant bonuses that regular victims of the recession could only dream of.

The peer insisted that only a huge transformation would allow banks to restore their reputations and rebuild their trust, such was the harm caused by their over-extension.

And he even went as far as to mock bankers for creating financial instruments that nobody wants or needs.

'No one wakes up on a Saturday morning and says I think I'll go out and buy one of those CDO squareds,' he said, referring to the exotic investments that helped bring the financial system to its knees.

'Banks need to refocus their energies, not on those over-complex products of no use to humanity... but on their core functions of providing savings and credit and payment products to customers.'

The atmosphere at the lavish banquet noticeably cooled as the peer spoke and he was even heckled three times about bonuses paid to FSA staff.

'Probably 60 per cent of the people in this room would willingly shoot Lord Turner over that speech,' one guest said afterwards, according to the Financial Times.

Within seconds of starting to speak, the FSA chairman made clear he had no intention of taking back his 'socially useless' claim made last month - for which he was branded a 'heretic' by City figures. 'I will not be recanting this evening', he said.

Lord Turner rejected accusations that he had undermined the industry's competitiveness with his earlier comments.

'It is not my job as chairman of the financial regulator to be the industry's cheerleader,' he declared pointedly.

He continued: 'British citizens will be burdened for many years with either higher taxes or cuts in public services because of an economic crisis... cooked up in trading rooms where many people earned annual bonuses equal to a lifetime's earnings of some of those suffering the consequences.'

He told bank bosses they needed to realise some activities - although profitable - are so unlikely to have a social benefit that they 'should voluntarily walk away from them'.

'Not all financial innovation is valuable, not all trading activity plays a useful role, and a bigger financial system is not necessarily a better one,' he said.

The peer - who used to be a banker - conceded that this might mean bank investments becoming more boring but said 'after the last year, there's a lot to be said for boring'.

He attacked those who wanted to pretend as if 'the near-death experience' of the last year had never happened. Returning to business as usual and risking a similar crisis was not an option, he insisted.

He also strongly endorsed the idea of linking bankers' pay to higher levels of capital held by banks so that they are never so exposed again.

The fresh attack left senior City figures fuming. >>> | Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Lord Myners: Bankers Still Paid 'Far Too Much'
THE TELEGRAPH: Lord Myners, the City minister, has launched an extraordinary attack on unrepentant bankers and their “unacceptable” bonuses.

Lord Myners is a former City fund manager. Photo: The Telegraph
Bank chiefs have failed to show “contrition or humility” over their role in the global financial crisis and are still paid “far too much,” the minister said.

Even though the Government is the majority shareholder in several major banks, Lord Myners attacked “inadequate stewardship by the owners of the business” and accused owners of failing to control bankers’ pay.

Gordon Brown and his ministers have repeatedly promised to curb excessive pay in the City, but in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Lord Myners said bankers continue to enjoy “unacceptable” pay deals because of the “poor policing” of City firms.

“I think the top cadres in the banking industry are [still] paid far, far too much,” Lord Myners said. “They are over-rewarded for the skills they have, and the reason this is allowed to continue is inadequate stewardship by the owners of the business.”

After bailing out the British banking sector, the Government owns around 70 per cent of RBS and 43 per cent of Lloyds Banking Group. The state also owns Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley.

Stephen Hester, the Treasury-appointed chief executive of RBS, has a £9.6 million contract which has been criticised by opposition parties and trade unions. Other financiers at the state-controlled bank have also received large pay deals.

It emerged last month that RBS has paid multimillion-pound “golden hellos” to senior bankers. One, Antonio Polverino, has been guaranteed a £7 million payment for a year's work. >>> Mary Riddell and James Kirkup | Friday, September 18, 2009

Max Hastings: Seize Their Porches and Throw Them in Jail! Shameless Bankers Are Worse than Train Robbers
MAIL Online: The best suggestion of the past week about how to punish Sir Fred Goodwin is that he should be obliged to report personally at an RBS branch to collect his pension cheques. If customers do not lynch him, staff will.

But too much attention has focused on Goodwin.

Of course, he is contemptible. But he is only one among thousands of monstrously over-rewarded merchants of failure.

At least the former RBS chief executive is no longer at his desk. Almost all the others still occupy fat, padded chairs in City institutions. The time has come to address the entire robber banker culture.

Lord Turner’s impressive Financial Services Authority report this week promised an end of ‘light touch’ regulation. Turner makes plain his distaste for the City’s reward structure.

I would go much further. In dealing with the sort of people who have created a disaster which will cripple this country’s finances for decades to come, drastic sanctions will be necessary.

Statistics from America show that top executives of the seven biggest failed financial institutions have taken home $464 million in alleged performance pay since 2005, while their businesses have racked up $107 billion losses in the past two years alone.

British bankers have profited from rip-offs identical in kind, if not quite in scale.

Yet those responsible remain convinced they are entitled to seven-figure remuneration, even though it’s taxpayers who are having to stump up the money.

It is as if a man who has driven a Bentley into a brick wall demands that the manufacturer should present him with a new one, because it is the only car he is used to driving.

These bankers think they are above criticism and the lesson for us, the public, is that we need to get the boot in and keep kicking.

Only thus might we begin to change the wicked culture which has brought Western nations, Britain prominent among them, to the edge of ruin. >>> Max Hastings | Saturday, March 21, 2009

THE GUARDIAN: AIG Warns Staff to Travel in Pairs after Death Threats over Bonuses

Executives fear for safety after £115m payout / Hide firm's logo and park in lit areas, employees told

The embattled US insurance company AIG has warned its staff to travel in pairs after dark, not to wear company logos and to avoid discussing their work outside the office, as public outrage boils over at multimillion-dollar executive bonuses.

AIG's employees have been subjected to death threats since the company handed out $165m (£115m) in "retention" awards to employees in its disastrously loss-making financial products division this week.

Recipients of the bonuses said they feared for their own safety. A union-backed campaign group is today taking protesters on a bus tour of AIG executives' homes in a wealthy enclave of Connecticut known as the "gold coast".

In a leaked company-wide memo, AIG's corporate security team this week warned staff to take special precautions "due to a growing sense of public attention fuelled by increased media scrutiny".

The memo, posted on the New York website Gawker, urges staff to "avoid wearing any AIG apparel (bags, shirts, umbrellas etc) with the company insignia". It advises workers to take off identity badges when they go outside, to report the presence of any strangers, and to call the emergency services if they think they are being followed. "At night, when possible, travel in pairs and always park in well-lit areas," it reads. >>> Andrew Clark in New York | Saturday, March 21, 2009

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: Goldman Defiant


The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Crisis in the Money Markets
THE SUNDAY TIMES: LEADING bankers are warning of the worst crisis in the money markets for 20 years, which will come to a head this week when $113 billion (£57 billion) of commercial paper – market IOUs – comes up for refinancing.

This huge refinancing, mainly through London, exceeds the $100 billion that became due in mid-August, and which sparked the most serious phase in the money-market crisis, which has seen banks scrambling for funds and market interest rates rising sharply. “This is a serious pressure point,” said one leading banker.

Another senior executive of one of Britain’s top five retail banks said: “These are the worst conditions I have seen in money markets for 20 years”. Worst crisis for 20 years, say banks (more) By David Smith and John Waples

Mark Alexander

Dramatic Interest Rate Cut in Iran Sends Banks into Shock and People into Panic
Thanks to Roberts Spencer of Jihad Watch, where I became aware of this story…

THE GUARDIAN:

· President's shock order defies expert advice
· Bank shares plummet amid rampant inflation

Iran's financial system suffered a fresh jolt yesterday with panic selling on the stock market after the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, abruptly ordered banks to cut interest rates sharply, despite surging inflation.

The order, which Mr Ahmadinejad issued by telephone during a visit to Belarus and which flew in the face of expert advice - has triggered warnings of a financial crisis and spiralling corruption amid fears of a capital flight from the country's lending institutions. Iran interest rate cutsparkspanic selling (more) By Robert Tait

Mark Alexander