Bosses at British banks shun bonuses

LONDON: Faced with public outrage over excessive bankers’ pay, the bosses of Britain’s five biggest banks have taken the unprecedented step of spurning bonuses worth millions of pounds.

As the dust settles on the annual results season, analysts said the sector was keen to fix its battered reputation after being accused of helping to spark the global financial crisis that dragged the world into a painful recession.

The chief executives of Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered all decided to renounce their bonus entitlements for 2009, with some even donating their rewards to charity.

“I am not surprised by the behaviour of bank chief executives,” said senior strategist Howard Wheeldon at BGC Brokers in London. “They are seeking to carry the responsibility, if not the can, for the part that their respective banks may or may not have been responsible for, in the mess that we have seen unfold over the past two years or so.”

He told AFP: “They are of course responding to public opinion too – but they are also seeking to protect their senior staff who are, after all, legally entitled to receive all that has been previously agreed that they will earn.”

While bosses relinquished their bonuses, remaining senior staff at the banks will still receive bumper financial rewards on top of their salaries – even after the government decided to slap a 50% tax rate on bank employee bonuses above £25,000 (US$37,600).

The so-called “supertax” could generate more than £2.5bil in taxation revenues, according to a recent survey by the Financial Times.

Last week, the head of global banking titan HSBC pledged his bonus to charity despite rising profits at the Asia-focused group as he sought to deflect public criticism over the controversial issue of executive pay.