No bonus eh?

[GastonJ]

BBC News - Ed Miliband says RBS bank boss should not get bonus

The bank's remuneration committee is expected to meet soon amid reports Mr Hester could receive a bonus of up to ?1.5m, although the bank denied this.

Ministers say they have acted to curb cash bonuses at the bank.

For the past two years taxpayer-supported RBS Group and Lloyds Banking Group have paid no cash bonuses of more than ?2,000.

But it says nothing of his share option bonuses which, since they aren't mentioned, he will most likely get. Usual half truths from politicians

[Lainie]

no one earning more thatn ?50000 at most should get any bonus as they dont ~~~~in need it!!

[cablefreejunkie]

~~~~ing disgrace
the bank is nearly entirely owned by the public so why have we not been consulted as shareholders ??????????

[TheCoder]

no one earning more thatn ?50000 at most should get any bonus as they dont ~~~~in need it!!

?50,000 ???

There's some families on benefit getting that amount !

[GastonJ]

No the person who has the voting rights (Dodgy Dave 'the used car salesman' Cameron) has decided that he doesn't want to stop the bonus. Usual b*llox from a Tory government, take money of the least wealthy and make sure that those who don't need it get more, this time with the liberals helping them.

The reason RBS are 'making' money is because the government 'awarded' RBS and Citibank the contract to take over Paymaster General and pays them for the service. So in all RBS are going to pay the country back by the country paying them for a service.... nice money if you can get it.

[TheCoder]

~~~~ing disgrace
the bank is nearly entirely owned by the public so why have we not been consulted as shareholders ??????????

Shareholders rarely are consulted when it comes to salaries and bonuses so its certainly not an odditty in this case. Shareholders actually have virtually zero rights to interfere in the everyday running of a company so, in this particular case, the Govt's options were quite limited. About the only option would be to bring down the board with a no confidence vote which would likely cause a share crash - not exactly the desired outcome.

Whats really needed here is a law change rather than a fixation on one particular example but passing any laws to regulate salaries/bonuses would actually be quite difficult, which is probably why no such thing has yet been attempted.

[tshirtman]

They should have put him on a piece work kind of bonus,
for every 10p rise in the share price, he gets ?10k bonus,
that way the shareholder gets something in return as well,
I'm not against someone getting a bonus, but only if they've earned it,
when Hester took over the bank, the share price was at 43p, now it's dropped to 27p.

[nara]

He's turned it down.

BBC News - RBS chairman rejects ?1.4m bonus

[cablefreejunkie]

He's turned it down.

BBC News - RBS chairman rejects ?1.4m bonus

different employee,,that relates to the chairman,,hester is the chief exec whos taking ?900k

[aleister crowley]

I don't necessarily agree with the bonus but people need to remember a few things.

He is being paid significantly less than his counterparts who are running major financial institutions, which in itself is a 'cut'.

The bank was making losses last year in the billions and this year has seen over 2 billion in profit under this new boss.

His bonus was paid in SHARES which means he will only profit from this bonus if the company does well, therefore it is performance related pay.

The fact that they have cut 3,500 jobs and he is receiving a bonus is not an issue because he was tasked with turning a loss making institution into a profit making one, which he is doing. If a business is ineffective and loss making, then there are going to be cuts.

Also, the fact that the taxpayer own 81% of RBS is not an issue because this guy has been brought in relatively cheaply compared to his counterparts who would have laughed at a bonus of 900k in shares after the profits RBS has seen this year.
He was tasked with turning RBS into a valuable asset for the taxpayer by raising the share prices and making the bank profitable, which is what he is doing, therefore he must be paid bonuses to keep him there and to turn RBS around so when the government do decide to sell then they can sell for a lot more than what they would have got in 2010-11 which is diddly squat.

[smirnoff_rules]

its seems ok , on the radio they said if he worked for another private bank it would of been 8 million , so cant see him staying in the job and dont blame him and then we have to find someone else , and who would want the job if they can get 10 times more bonus somewhere else

[bobwill]

The problem is Gordon Brown was stupid he let fred goodwin have a golden handshake after he bankrupted the bank then he gave Heston the job and agreed his pay and bonus structure so unless he agrees to tear up his contract without compensation he will get a bonus

[cablefreejunkie]

the whole system is corrupt to the core,,how on earth can you justify the kinds of salaries that these individuals get paid,,its the same as footballers
we live in a world of free market capatalism which has completely ~~~~ed up western civilisation to such an extent that the gap between rich and poor is greater than it has ever been,,countrys are going bankrupt,,people are broke,but the tiny minority at the top are reaping millions of pounds,,how anybody can justify it is completely beyond me,,and before anyone tries to flame me down,im not a communist although in theory it works
society as a whole needs to stop this.....oh i forgot the she devil thatcher instilled the ~~~~ you im alright mantra into normal hardworking folk years ago and turned them into greedy ~~~~ers out for themselves at whatever cost,and now we reap the rewards
seriously how long will it take before the masses realise whats going on and stand up against it ?????

[GastonJ]

The problem is Gordon Brown was stupid he let fred goodwin have a golden handshake after he bankrupted the bank then he gave Heston the job and agreed his pay and bonus structure so unless he agrees to tear up his contract without compensation he will get a bonus

If that were the case then how come the government ensured that there has been no cash bonus of more than ?2000 for employees of the banks they bailed out? It's absolute b**lox if you ask me, if they can cap the cash bonuses then they could have stopped or capped the shares as well. They are very quick to stop pay rises, let alone bonuses, of the public sector who are always the first to take the hit by any government.

[hypersonic]

Even a glove puppet as chief exec of RBS could make make a profit for the bank ~ give the depositers 0.1% interest and charge 19.9% on loans and credit cards ~ SIMPLES.
Hester has all the charisma of a cow pat!