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RBS banker’s bonus is quite obscene

11:35am Saturday 28th January 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

I FIND the thought that Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester has been offered a bonus of £963,000 to be quite obscene.

Whether or not he accepts it, the board of directors has clearly lost all touch with reality to sanction such a payout.

Can they not comprehend how angry this makes ordinary people?

The tottering bank had to be bailed out by the Government and is now 82 per cent owned by the taxpayer. Effectively, this is our money.

Perhaps the time has come for the whole board to be dismissed and start again with new people who have some sense of morality.

Either that or they should just come clean and rename it the Royal Bank of Freeloaders.

Dave Taylor, Green Party councillor for Fishergate.

Comments(15)

Buzz Light-year says...
12:00pm Sat 28 Jan 12

Good point.

For some perspective £963,000 would keep for a year 37 of these heinous and despicable dirty scrounger families that we are seemingly swamped with at that mythical tabloid figure £26,000.

Or £26,000 for one of these undeserving country-crippling public enemy families for the next 37 years.

Or a yearly top-up to one already rich man as reward for failing to pull that 3-2 comeback from 2-nil down at half time.

Hmmmm.......

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Viper_7 says...
2:54pm Sat 28 Jan 12

You're right the government has 82% of holdings of the bank using Tax payers money.
I'd rather have someone running the bank who is turning it around and making billions in profit rather than seeing the business fail, thus one day meaning the government can sell it's shares with a profit. Don't forget it's not cash in pocket it's in shares, so his bonus could be millions more if and when the share value goes up.

If businesses in the UK don't pay top dollar for their essential staff they will and do up sticks and go abroad. The UK has a ever decreasing manufacturing export, and the only real money making business left is in finance.

If RBS continues to be successfully the government will get this bonus back and more in Business taxation, people should really look outside the box a little more and see the bigger picture.

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yawn.. says...
4:01pm Sat 28 Jan 12

It's a shame then that Sir Fred Goodwin hadn't knacked off abroad before he brought a bank and indeed a country to its knees and requiring the taxpayer to bail them out once more.. minus knighthood, pensions and bonuses of course.
These bonuses are often beyond the dreams of averice, a life changing lottery win, offered for mediocrity far removed from excellence, and simply serve to infuriate those fortunate enough to have work in an uncertain economic climate. The person working 60 - 70 hrs a week and beyond quite often simply to keep pace with inflation will never see such bonuses, they'll just be taxed.

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Viper_7 says...
4:29pm Sat 28 Jan 12

Not sir Fred's fault, a Government who pushed consumer spending, and pretty much forced banks to lend and lend even though people had no real means of paying it back. The money was never real, it was never there to spend, people expected house prices to keep increasing to cover it,not surprising the bubble burst and now so many people have no cash, or assets to fall back on.
People are only complaining now as the can't buy the latest big screen TV on credit like they could a few years back. You really don't want the banks go go abroad, UK would just get bought.
For the person working 60-70 hours a week, why not apply to be CEO and get some nice bonuses?

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newscritic says...
5:17pm Sat 28 Jan 12

Anyone could sack thousands of people to justify their bonus.

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yawn.. says...
6:37pm Sat 28 Jan 12

Oh... well.. maybe Sir Fred was worth every penny then for being the lamb to the slaughter.
Maybe the people who smashed the windows of his mansion and had a poo on his car were just misunderstood.
The fact remains, he took a huge settlement and a pension that 98% of us could only ever dream of for being instrumental in dropping us all in the sh1t.
Many people's concerns are now slightly more fundamental than what huge telly they can't afford, and to make light of this situation in my opinion merely shows both arrogance and ignorance.

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Mr Crabtree says...
6:41pm Sat 28 Jan 12

Stephen Hester was brought in to do this job because he has the experience and ability required. He could no doubt earn far more elsewhere, and without anywhere near as much grief. If he does go elsewhere, how will the government attract the right calibre of executive to do the job, if the remuneration package is not competitive ?
You pay peanuts and you get monkeys !

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E=MC^2 says...
6:57pm Sat 28 Jan 12

Evidence from high Pay commission shows it is unlikely bankers would go. They did not leave to escape the bonus tax as London is a great place to live life on the hogg if you are a fat cat banker compared to being in Abu Dhabi etc. Time to call their bluff.

http://highpaycommis
sion.co.uk/wp-conten
t/uploads/2011/02/HP
CBriefingnote10quest
ions.pdf

The Uk financial sector contributes less than 8% to GDP, but has disproportionate salaries and political power .

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newscritic says...
7:19pm Sat 28 Jan 12

Mr Crabtree wrote:
Stephen Hester was brought in to do this job because he has the experience and ability required. He could no doubt earn far more elsewhere, and without anywhere near as much grief. If he does go elsewhere, how will the government attract the right calibre of executive to do the job, if the remuneration package is not competitive ?
You pay peanuts and you get monkeys !
I thought monkeys had already caused the financial crisis and they certainly were not paid peanuts.

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Omega Point says...
7:29am Sun 29 Jan 12

newscritic wrote:
Anyone could sack thousands of people to justify their bonus.
To right but they do not call it sacking.

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Mr Crabtree says...
1:11pm Sun 29 Jan 12

There seems to be a lot of hidden envy displayed in these posts, along with prejudicial ignorance !

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newscritic says...
1:27pm Sun 29 Jan 12

Mr Crabtree wrote:
There seems to be a lot of hidden envy displayed in these posts, along with prejudicial ignorance !
No need for you to apologise Mr Crabtree concerning your prejudicial ignorance.

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Brickyard says...
7:29pm Sun 29 Jan 12

Oh contrare Rodney, the gentelman is turning an ailing white elephant into a cutting edge profit making concern, which is exactly what he was asked to do, the bank was something only Trigger would have invested in 18 months ago, and now Boyce wants some of the action, well done Mr. Crabtree, thats what I say, keep up the good work.

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Omega Point says...
11:23pm Sun 29 Jan 12

Not going to accept the share option now.
Does he know something?

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Sir Alex says...
11:52am Mon 30 Jan 12

Considering the shares are down 40% since it went public and they are mainly administering loan repayments and cutting staff rather than lending then its wise he didn't take the bonus. The business is consolidating and certainly not growing.

Its a strange system that gave it him in the first place. Like most - his money should be mostly salary cos its easily understood. Bonuses can be engineered with short term thinking.

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