RBS Chief- Give me £10m to go to work

“The economy and financial markets have stabilized in recent weeks, but Fed officials want more evidence a recovery is for real. The economy is on track to contract at about a 1% annual rate in the second quarter, according to forecasters Macroeconomic Advisers. That would be the fourth straight quarterly contraction, a stretch of decline that hasn’t occurred since the Great Depression.”

Wall Street Journal Europe 22/6/09

Hester: wants £10m bonus to be bothered to do his job

I’m sure the bankers and finance industry responsible for the economic collapse have learnt their lesson and are ready to accept a more responsible and well regulated market. Well, not in the case of the new RBS Chief Exec Stephen Hester, who, by vying for a £10 million incentive deal, is flipping UK taxpayers the metaphorical bird;

Peter Montagnon, the head of investment affairs at the Association of British Insurers (ABI), said: “The idea is not to have a public row but to continue to have a constructive dialogue”. He said RBS needed a period out of the spotlight to concentrate on turning around the bank, in which the taxpayer has a 70% stake.

Following lengthy negotiations with UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the body which looks after the taxpayer’s stake, a £9.6m pay package has been agreed for Hester. The deal includes a basic salary of £1.2m, an annual non-cash bonus of £2m and almost £6.4m of long-term share and stock option awards.

“Reports that Stephen Hester will be awarded a £9.6m package will be met with absolute disbelief by frontline staff in the finance industry,” said Graham Goddard, the Unite deputy general secretary.

“Unite is appalled that instead of striving to save jobs in this state-controlled bank, UKFI is approving such an incentive plan. Staff and customers are sick of seeing senior bankers earn such huge financial awards when, every week, hundreds of hard-working and loyal staff are losing their jobs.”

The size of the deal has also angered the RBS Shareholders Action Group.

I don’t know who is worse in this instance…the bankers who are happy to accept vast sums of money, while their workers and the general population suffer, or the government, which has barely leaned on the banks they own huge stakes in whatsoever. Think of what could be done with a national reconstruction bank, which could be a new arm of RBS. Instead of investing in fossil fuels and the usual corporate favourites, pump money into infrastructure, job creation and renewable energy sources.

This isn’t pie in the sky stuff. If people protested these things enough, or voted out the mainstream parties, rather than moan about the whole affair at home, or to pollsters, the country wouldn’t be in such shambolic state.