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.
Mr Diamond was repeatedly pressed to express gratitude to UK taxpayers for Government support for the sector. “We are very appreciative of all of the moves that were taken to ensure we still had a financial system,” he said. “On the other hand, there are 150,000 people at Barclays, we never failed a stress test, we never put the system at risk -- we never took a single penny from any taxpayer around the world.”
So here's what you can expect moving forward (warning you now so you can't act surprised later):
1) No more apologies.
2) Bonuses that may in some cases include 7, 8 or 9 figures. Why? Because Bob and Co are adults and they can do whatever they want!
3) Sweet, sweet risk, as far as they eye can see (“It’s in the best interests of everyone in this country that we shift the mantle of growth to the private sector," BD said. "We need banks to be able to take risk, working with the private sector in the UK.")
Bob Diamond: Bankers Should Stop Apologising [Telegraph]
