Pressure increases on RBS to give up bonuses

Some bankers could receive bonuses worth £15 million with hundreds at RBS set to gain. Go Fourth has relaunched its 'Give Up the Bonus' campaign.

As it was reported that some bankers could receive bonuses worth £15 million this winter with hundreds of the payouts expected to go to RBS, John Prescott’s website Go Fourth has relaunched its ‘Give Up the Bonus‘ campaign.

The main page of the website says:

“In February the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which received £20 billion of taxpayers’ money, tried to pay out £1b of it in bonuses to bankers and traders. We believed this was morally and economically outrageous and had to be stopped. Thanks to 30,000 people signing our Give Up The Bonus petition, RBS reduced the payout from £1b to £175m. Now RBS reportedly wants to pay a total of £1.5bn in bonuses to investment banking staff, and the board has threatened to quit if the government blocks the move.”

The chart below from the House of Commons ‘Economic Update – October 2009‘ (p.8) shows that for much of 2009, wage increases have been accelerating only because bonuses have been increasing. The thicker black line which excludes bonus payments shows that wage increases have been decelerating. This pattern is unusual since the two lines normally move in the same direction.

Financial economist and Left Foot Forward contributor, Duncan Weldon, outlined on his economic blog yesterday that RBS are employees have not even put in a good performance this year with a return on total assets worth £464.6 bn of just 1.35 per cent, well below the return that would have been received had the bank bought “simple, risk free 10 year UK government bonds”

5 Responses to “Pressure increases on RBS to give up bonuses”

  1. dr nick

    RT @leftfootfwd: Pressure grows on RBS to give up the bonus as data shows skewing impact on British economy http://bit.ly/8AnyZB

  2. Billy Blofeld

    Morning Will,

    Here is some banking bail out fun for you – enjoy….

    P.S. Nice weather we are having………

  3. Grahame Morris

    RBS bonuses are completely unjustified ~ data shows skewing impact of bonuses on British economy http://bit.ly/8AnyZB #RBS

  4. Inflation busting pay rises of public sector "fat 'crats" | Left Foot Forward

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  5. Bobby Cummines.FRSA

    I find it disgusting, that the banks that the tax payers have rescued are the same banks that sre repossing tax payers homes, or taking customers to court and damaging their credit rating, yet think they are worthy of high bonus, Government protects the banks, but who protects the home owner from being made homeless or bunkrupt isn’t it about time that the government brought in a bill to protect families from losing the roof over their heads and small businesses going bust because these same bankers are putting the squeeze on them. home and families must be protected against such heavy handed practice, if you want to be fair , then being as it is costing £40,000 per house hold, then why not make the bank deduct that figure from evry housholds /business loan or mortgage. that way everyone benifits. I have no problem with those who have worked hard get the bonus they deserve, but when a bank is bailed out by us, then we should have a bonus also, how mwny people will lose their homes over Christmas, from the banks we owned and saved.

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