Isn’t it time bankers gave value for money? (From York Press)

Isn’t it time bankers gave value for money?

10:25am Thursday 7th March 2013 in Letters By Readers' letters

CONGRATULATIONS to the EU on voting to reform the banking sector and to cap bankers’ bonuses.

In spite of promises that they would reform of the banking sector, the Conservatives in Government have done all they could to block any reform.

They have dragged their feet on separating high-risk banking from high-street banking. They have blocked a financial transaction tax and they have sought to allow bankers to carry on paying themselves massive bonuses, even while those same bankers are losing vast sums of money, receiving huge fines for fixing Libor banking rates, and being forced to pay out billions in compensation for payment protection insurance plans.

To cap it all, in spite of being lent billions at low interest rates, the banks are still refusing to lend to small businesses.

In desperation last week, Boris Johnson and David Cameron claimed any cap on bonuses (and remember we are talking about individuals who will still be taking home £2 million a year) would drive bankers to Zurich. Within days the Swiss have voted to cap these discredited bonus payments.

We hear a great deal about the value of banking to the UK. It is worth noting that the green economy is as large as the banking sector, employs more than a million people, and is growing by between four and five per cent a year.

Christian Vassie, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.

 

• ALTHOUGH it has all been neatly explained, I still do not get it: why do banks need these extortionate bonuses on top of lucrative salaries?

Meanwhile, they still will not lend to small businesses, mortgages are harder to get and let us not forget the unfortunate saver who receives a pittance of interest on his or her investment. It seems that all our money is siphoned off to pay for bankers’ perks.

And all this self-interest comes with our Government’s blessing.

I remember when banks used people’s investment to finance things and gave back interest – a positive financial loop instead of this shambolic mess that we appear to be in.

Although it has, and can be neatly explained, I still do not get it. Why do banks appear so self-indulgent, instead of looking after their customers?

Phil Shepherdson, Chantry Close, Woodthorpe, York.

 

• I WELCOME the recent plan by the European Union to cap bankers’ bonuses to no more than their annual salary. But the Coalition Government has rallied against the proposals, defending massive RBS bonuses as it announced a £5.2 billion loss.

I cannot understand why someone earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a year deserves an even bigger bonus. Not while cleaners, who make it possible for bankers to do their jobs, struggle to earn enough to simply live.

Coun Andrew Cooper, Green Party lead candidate for 2014 European elections, Brockholes, Holmfirth.