A profit is nearly within reach. Read more »
RBS
RBS Chief Stephen Hester May Not Have Been Briefed On Fellow CEOs Bonuses When He Defended His £7.7M One By Saying It Was “At The Low End Of Comparable Jobs”
By Bess Levin
RBS CEO Stephen Hester was recently asked by Parliament to defend his bonus for 2011, which clocked in at around £7.7m. Some might argue the Brits had the right to do so in light of the fact that about 82 percent of the bank is owned by the government. The two sides brought slightly different opinions to the table, Hester being of the mind that the his paycheck was well-deserved, and the MP’s being in strong disagreement, given that RBS recently reported net losses for a third consecutive year.
Things got quite heated, with Labour MP Austin Mitchell asking, “What have you done for £7.7m? Is it that you produced an outstanding enormous profit for the bank, or is it because you are a greedy banker?” Hester, taking umbrage at the suggestion that a) he didn’t earn every pound of his package and that b) he was in anyway greedy sought fit to lay some truth on Mitchell and Co’s asses, telling them his number was “at the low end of comparable jobs in the UK and globally.” An interesting theory! Read more »
Remember Fred Goodwin? He was the CEO of RBS for a number of years (about 8) and for many of them, probably right liked being called a ‘banker.’ Like in 2000, when he was name Chief executive and in 2006, when he was voted the most powerful businessman in Scotland. Years from now he’ll look back on his tenure fondly but at this moment, he’s having some difficulty recalling all the good times, in light of how badly things ended, and the fact that people won’t stop making him feel guilty for putting the pieces in place the caused RBS to lose a spectacular amount of money and wind up with 82% of its ass owned by the government.
Goodwin’s been trying his hardest to move on and maybe even embark on a new career as a party planner but what’s making it so hard is that every time he opens a newspaper, he sees his name next to the word ‘banker.’ Refraining from reading papers doesn’t help either because of course you’ve got the internet and you can’t expect him to not have a Google alert set up for himself, now can you? Anyway, Goodwin tried to reason with the press and just get them to drop the ‘banker’ business altogether or at least swap it out for a better description like ‘genius’ or ‘piece of ass’ but they wouldn’t listen, so what Goodwin had to do was play hardball. Read more »
Yes, bonuses at RBS are expected to be “downsized” at least thirty percent this year but the relatively good news? The bank will get to pay out shitty bonuses on its own terms and not because anyone is forcing them to do so. Read more »
Bob Diamond Will Not Be Limiting Bonuses For Barclays Staff This Year, Would Appreciate It If The Bank Bashers Would Piss Off, Buy A Clue
By Bess Levin
Earlier this morning across the pond, Bob Diamond told the House of Commons Treasury Committee that while payouts will be distributed “responsibly,” Barclays employees will be awarded bonuses that reflect the work they’ve done this year and will not be dictated by some arbitrary cap. Why won’t BD listen to the repeated calls from the government and the people to limit pay? Because to do so would in essence be saying “sorry, we were wrong,” and guess what, Bub? The days when Barclays would get down on its hands and knees and beg for forgiveness from the masses are over. “There was a period of remorse and apology for banks,” Bobby said. “I think that period needs to be over.” And while we’re on the subject? Remind Bob again why exactly an institution like Barclays should even be apologizing for in the first place? It’s just not exactly clear to him given that you seem to have two types of banks in the UK- the kind like Barclays, which did nothing wrong and the kind like RBS, which can’t do anything right. And yet, they’re treated one and the same. Read more »
In recent weeks, we’ve received word that RBS will be “downsizing” bonuses by “at least” 30 percent this year; that it may lay off around ten percent of the staff in the coming months; and that employees have had their holiday party celebrations capped at one bag of (fun size) chips per head. So we were in need of some good news for the royalest bank of Scotland and here it is– these chippies can throw a party! Specifically, one centered around a children’s novel, which set the firm back a pretty penny but you know what? It was worth it and sorry, they’re not sorry. Read more »
Earlier this week, we got word via some RBS higher-ups that bonuses for the Queen’s bitches would be “less than 2009″ this year. How much less? If you’re lucky, apparently thirty percent and if you’re not, more. So, this is not the best news if you happen to be an employee of the Royal Bank (nor is the fact that the payouts don’t come until June) and while it may be little solace, consider taking heart: you could be working in Ireland, where the government has passed out its routing number and asked the banks to direct deposit employees’ bonuses in its checking account. Read more »
As few probably remember, back in February we pointed to an account of an anonymous group of London bankers spending £44,000 in one evening as indication that Team RBS may not have fared so badly in the bonus department (at the time they weren’t ID’d as the Queen’s bitches but we’ve got a sixth sense for these things). In addition to celebrating getting paid, the men were said to be in good spirits over the fact that they’d profited off the recent election, having “correctly guessed the results in constituencies over a large spread bet.” Today, as in approximately ten months later, RBS chief Stephen Hester was asked his opinion about the celebration. He chose not to congratulate or take any pride at all in his employees’ mad gambling skills. Read more »
“Bonus downgrades” are coming. Read more »
- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
