rbs sets aside 1.79 billion for bonuses

[gothicform]

Rescued bank to pay millions in bonuses
RBS 'making monkeys' out of the government, says Vince Cable

* Simon Bowers
* The Guardian,
* Saturday November 1 2008
* Article history

Royal Bank of Scotland

Royal Bank of Scotland. Photograph: Newscast

Royal Bank of Scotland, which is being bailed out with £20bn of taxpayers' money, has signalled it is preparing to pay bonuses to thousands of staff despite government pledges to crack down on City pay.

The bank has set aside £1.79bn to cover "staff costs" - including discretionary bonuses - at its investment banking division for the first six months of the year alone. The same division caused a £5.9bn writedown that wiped out the bank's profits for the same period.

The government had demanded that boardroom directors at RBS should not receive bonuses this year and the chief executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, is walking away without a pay-off. But below boardroom level, RBS and other groups are preparing to pay bonuses to investment bankers who continue to generate profits.

The disclosure drew fierce criticism from Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman.

"The government said they would attach strict conditions on bonuses and it is very clear they are doing nothing of the kind.

"The banks are just making complete monkeys of them."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...-vincent-cable


incredible... personally i like to get kissed before i get fucked. clearly gordon brown does not.

[AndrewC]

Cool, do I get my share as a check or do they just transfer it straight into my account?

[b4mmy]

a disgrace... how about chucking that kind of money at some inward investment or compensating the innocent for their job losses.

Figures are up by 200,000 so divided equally that would be around £8,500 per person...

...how many homes would that save from repossession, and how many months worth of food and bills would it pay for...

[Zim Flyer]

Originally Posted by AndrewC

Cool, do I get my share as a check or do they just transfer it straight into my account?

Charlie P, will spack your bum.


As regards the bonuses, this is where we have the joys of partial state ownership getting blurred with the realities of the private world.

I'm convinced the state ownership of some banks will unravel from within.

[PresidentBjork]

insulting to say the least

[gothicform]

...how many homes would that save from repossession, and how many months worth of food and bills would it pay for...

it would save every home in the country from repossession. RBS but for government intervention is bankrupt and this one division gets bonuses despite losing almost 6 billion quid!

[andysimo123]

Withdraw the Government funding and let them go under. They need to be shown who is boss.

[AndrewC]

Originally Posted by Zim Flyer

Charlie P, will spack your bum.

I'm getting a big payout from RBS, I will spell chteqk however I want.

[VaastuShastra]

Originally Posted by andysimo123

Withdraw the Government funding and let them go under. They need to be shown who is boss.

If they go under, we are all fucked, so they are the ones holding the jar of vasolene.

[gothicform]

not at all. the government can easily pass a law taking them over the second they go under

[Zim Flyer]

Originally Posted by AndrewC

I'm getting a big payout from RBS, I will spell chteqk however I want.

Of course it would help if I could spell smack

[VaastuShastra]

This whole situation takes the piss doesnt it.

They fuck up, screwing us all over.

We cant afford for them to die, so we bail them out.

They decide to carry on behaving like assholes, and we cant do shit.

Average people are reduced to being their rapedolls.

In these sort of extraordinary circumstances, something should be done. We are no longer talking about private profits, that they have 'earned' - we are now talking about taxpayer money - therefore, this has now become a form of treason. If these people wont willingly give back their bonueses, assets equal to the value of these bonuses should be siezed by the government and liquidated in the interests of the public. Seaports, airports and rail terminals should be closed to them until they agree or the assets are siezed. Those who refuse, and somehow hide their assets, can be sent to the Tower of London

[El_Greco]

Originally Posted by VaastuShastra

can be sent to the Tower of London

To have their head choped off.

[Comdot]

this fucking stinks

[Octoman]

Really stinks. I cant believe they have been so stupid to do this. They must have realized the outrage it would cause. Clearly they just don't give a shit.

[VaastuShastra]

Look at this thread - people from every political spectrum agree this is unacceptable.

When everyone agrees on something, doing something about it should be a formality.

Instead, we are all powerless.

Democracy transfered power from the wallets of a few, to the ballot boxes of the many.

But in an age of global capitalism, decisions are made by multi-national entities, who are not loyal to any electorate - the IMF and World Bank are not elected for example - and massive economy-changing corporations like BP are of course not elected.

Essentially power has moved backward from the ballot boxes, to the wallets.

Just as sci-fi writers predicted for the last couple of decades, mega corporations have therefore become like the new governments, replacing the 'state' - and wealth, rather than democratic power, is the only thing that can influence them - richer shareholders having more say than poorer ones.

[gothicform]

Just as sci-fi writers predicted for the last couple of decades, mega corporations have therefore become like the new governments, replacing the 'state' - and wealth, rather than democratic power, is the only thing that can influence them - richer shareholders having more say than poorer ones.

but... this company wouldn't exist now without the british government. we OWN them.

[Anymodal]

We may aswell start giving them government issued Lamborghinis.

[VaastuShastra]

Originally Posted by gothicform

but... this company wouldn't exist now without the british government. we OWN them.

Yeah, we decided to tell our employees to pay themselves £1.7bn of our money in bonuses then I guess

[VaastuShastra]

Originally Posted by gothicform

not at all. the government can easily pass a law taking them over the second they go under

Jokes aside, the government would never deliberatly let a major bank go under, and then nationalise it, they rather just let it reward bonuses like this. I mean cmon - not only does Brown not want to appear to nationalise anything - but nationalising such an important economic institution, will rightly or wrongly, effect the economy badly.