The Royal Bank of Scotland, which was bailed out with over £20 billion of tax-payers money just 12 months ago, has set aside £2bn of your money for bonuses and salaries to its investment banking staff – a figure that could, quite incredibly, double by the end of the year.The bailed out, failed and government-owned RBS confirmed that it will be offering huge bonuses to its 20,000 investment bankers this year.
The remuneration bill for RBS' investment bank division reached £1.8bn for just the first six months of 2009 – that's £90,000 per head ... for only 6 months "work"! And the final total for the year will rise substantially.
Such sums being set aside for RBS investment bankers are astounding, particularly as this division sparked the crisis inside the bank.
Rob MacGregor, national officer for Unite, said: "These RBS investment bankers are happy to return to business as usual and line their pockets while thousands of real bank staff pay the price for the reckless behaviour which almost destroyed the company. Thousands have lost their jobs this year as RBS seeks to reduce costs. Yet somehow the kitty for City bankers is forever growing."How right he is. Indeed, the company would have collapsed if us tax-payers had not coughed up £18,000 each to bail them out.
Any decision on bonuses will have to involve UKFI, the sham body Moron set up to look after the government's 70% stake in RBS and 43% in Lloyds. UKFI, which declined to comment, did manage to limit one-of bonus payments last year but presided over a total of £1bn in deferred payments and new-style bonds and approved Stephen Hester's £9m annual pay deal as chief executive of RBS.
Hester has already defended the need to pay big bonuses and has spear-headed an aggressive hiring policy with massive pay packages in an "attempt to entice the highest calibre bankers to its troubled business". One banker from Merrill Lynch is among those to have been lured by multi-million pound signing-on fees and has been paid £7m of your money just to join the bank you own.
While the banking industry was on the brink of collapse a year ago, those banks which have survived have been able to report stellar profits because of the billions of pounds' worth of bonds issued by governments to pay for their own bailouts, as well as the surging stock market.
Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, said: "This government has granted a goldmine to a few investment banks. They've bailed them out and effectively pulled the plug on the competition."
The only reasonable conclusion is that these greedy investment bankers have learnt absolutely nothing from the financial meltdown and have the government fawning at their feet. The actions of these top bankers brought catastrophe to our economic system, yet they continue to be obscenely rewarded.
Bastards ... slimy bastards all over the world!
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