THE TELEGRAPH: World leaders will agree unprecedented global restrictions on pay and bonuses for bankers at the G20 summit in London.
In future, bankers will be prevented from receiving multi-million pound cash bonuses for speculating on the stock market.
Their remuneration will instead be based on the risks they take over the long term. Bankers deemed to be making risky investment decisions will only be paid in shares that can be cashed in after several years.
The multi-million-pound bonuses paid to bankers have been blamed for encouraging them to take the "reckless" decisions that triggered the global financial crisis.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that the remuneration deal was thrashed out over the past few days following intensive diplomatic efforts by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. The measure did not appear in a draft communiqué that was leaked at the weekend.
The European leaders were understood to have pushed for an exact monetary limit on banking pay but were prepared to sign up to the new, strongly-worded agreement.
Regulators in each of the G20 countries will impose the new restrictions, which cover both private banks and those owned both wholly and partially by the state.
The agreement will be the most eye-catching part of the communiqué, which is expected to be released by G20 leaders at the summit in London's Docklands on Thursday.
On Wednesday, violent clashes took place in the capital between police and anti-capitalism protesters ahead of the talks. In the City of London, a branch of Royal Bank of Scotland was attacked and looted as violence flared during a 6,000-strong protest, which resulted in 32 arrests.
A man died after he collapsed at the scene of protests near the Bank of England last night.
A protester called the police after they saw the man collapse and stop breathing in St Michael’s Alley, near Birchin Lane just off Cornhill shortly before 7.30pm.
Two police medics broke through the cordon and carried the man to a clear area in front of the Royal Exchange where they gave him CPR.
The ambulance arrived six minutes later and took him to hospital just before 8pm, where he was pronounced dead.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “The officers took the decision to move him as during this time a number of missiles - believed to be bottles - were being thrown at them.”
It is believed that the man died of a heart attack. >>> By Andrew Porter, Robert Winnett and Christopher Hope | Thursday, April 2, 2009
