Shamik Das reports on RBS chief Stephen Hester’s obscene bonus and pay packages - which could see him receive seven million pounds for 2011.
As winter’s icy chill blasts millions of Britons up and down the land, with wages frozen, jobs lost and benefits slashed – with even cancer patients and disabled children not spared by the Cabinet of the compassionless – for at least one individual, there’s reason to cheer.
RBS chief Stephen Hester’s 2011 pay packet could reach £7.38 million. Seven million, three hundred and eighty thousand pounds.
That’s right, those responsible for the crisis are rolling in the dough once again, as if there’d been no recession, while those that had nothing to do with it are paying the price. Fair? Fair???
The Telegraph reports:
In a statement on Thursday night, the bank said Mr Hester would get a bonus of £963,000 as the taxpayer-backed lender bowed to political and public pressure to ensure its chief executive was not handed more than £1m.
However, the bank admitted Mr Hester was still potentially eligible for an award under a long-term incentive plan (LTIP) worth as much as £4.8m.
This means his total pay package for last year including his £1.2m salary and £420,000 pension could reach £7.38m.
If Mr Hester were to receive his maximum LTIP grant it would take the total value of the awards made to him since he took over as chief executive in October 2008 to about £27.5m.
The actual value of these awards is likely to be substantially lower than this due to the collapse in RBS’s share price over the last 12 months.
As foreign office minister Jeremy Browne told Question Time last night:
“There’s a question of honour. Even if there’s a contractual opportunity for him to have a bonus it doesn’t mean he has to accept it… He is effectively a public servant in a bank which is almost completely owned by us the taxpayers.
“He needs to think like a public servant who has a duty to his country, not just his own wealth… No-one’s forcing him to take this money. He could struggle on with £1.2m.”
All in it together?
See also:
• Cable fails to provide a stick or carrot in the fight against obscene pay – Duncan Exley, January 24th 2012
• Three things Cameron should do if he’s serious about high pay – Duncan Exley, January 9th 2012
• How bankers’ bonuses are contributing to the new credit crunch – Cormac Hollingsworth, December 6th 2011
• All in it together, eh Gideon? FTSE fat cats see pay rocket 50 per cent – Shamik Das, October 28th 2011
• Coalition fails “moment of truth” on bankers’ bonuses – Will Straw, February 9th 2011
43 Responses to “All in it together? RBS fat cat “in line for £7m payout”. Seven. Million”
Doug Fisher
All in it together? RBS fat cat “in line for £7m payout”. Seven. Million … http://t.co/RGCjs5u4
BevR
RT @leftfootfwd: All in it together? RBS fat cat “in line for £7m http://t.co/ROjee9gx
The government has the power to stop Hester’s bonus, they just don’t want to | Left Foot Forward
[…] also: • All in it together? RBS fat cat “in line for £7m payout”. Seven. Million – Shamik Das, January 27th […]
Patrick
That level of bonus is the simply the going rate for that level in that industry. That’s difficult for most people to understand as they don’t work in Finance and aren’t CEOs of huge companies. If a company feels their employee is deserving of a bonus, then he or she should have it.
Why are some jobs paid more than others? Why does a dentist earn multiples of what a car mechanic does? They’re both essentially manual jobs that require knowledge, training and technical skill. Yet no-one is demonstrating outside their local dentists. It’s the same principle.
And how about actors? No-one ever complains about the millions they earn. Perhaps Jude Law should donate a year’s pay to the Treasury. Yet’s that’s not something you ever hear suggested. Is that because actors are seen as fun, entertaining, and good looking, whereas bankers are just boring men in suits that sit in offices doing things that people don’t understand and find it difficult to attach value to.
Redisbleu
My ex husband writes the software for these banks to do their international trading. Yes, I know the industry. And “well that’s the industry” isn’t a good excuse. Who the feck can spend all that money in one go? My ex’s bonus is more than I will see in an entire year, but he won’t take over care for his own son – “too expensive” he said. Lovely. So I do a job which would cost an agency £100,000 a year to do, and I get £55 a week for it…and I’m called a scrounger for getting that at all; because of course raising the next generation of tax-payers isn’t important, especially if said future tax-payer needs a lot of work to get to that stage in the first place (since my son is disabled). I’m doing an essential job and the paper is filled daily with how people like me are a drain in the system. I suppose if we’re going to use the “No one knows how much work it is”, I’d invite someone to try and educate and care for my son for a week, and then tell me I’m not entitled to support to do so because it’s clear no one else wants the job.
Money I earned didn’t go to bail out starving actors last year, or yes I’d be picketing. However I also am not a big fan of footie players or artists; I don’t watch telly, I don’t watch footy as a result. But last I checked they do pay their taxes and don’t dump it into offshore so they don’t have to. Quite a few donate to charities. But as I’m well aware of how bankers think thanks to one too many company picnics where I’d have to be the Supportive-and-Subordinate-Wife role, I heard what these fellows spent their bonuses on, and it sure wasn’t charity.
If Paul Newman and Bill Gates could decide they had finally made enough money and therefore refused to make any more (and indeed gave the rest of their earnings away to charity) then maybe your idea isn’t as “ridiculous” as you’re trying to claim it is. Baroness Meacher is already on record saying she would happily give up some of the perks she has as a member of the House of Lords so that the disabled don’t have to. I would therefore suggest that “Oh but it’s expected” isn’t really a good excuse…nor is a lack of empathy or compassion, although it doesn’t seem to stop those claiming these extortionate bennies (oh my, benefits!).