BANKERS' BONUSES

EDM number 1084 in 2008-09, proposed by Michael Meacher on 12/03/2009.
Categorised under the topics of Financial institutions and Pay.

That this House notes that the Royal Bank of Scotland has lost £8 billion this year and has been forced to write off a further £20 billion because of the reckless takeover of ABN Amro yet still intends, despite being owned nearly 70 per cent. by the taxpayer, to pay £1 billion in bonuses this year; believes that decisions on bank bonuses should be taken far more expeditiously than the year-long timespan accorded to the committee set up by the Treasury to investigate the issue; further believes that independent judgements will not be reached by a committee chaired by Sir David Walker and composed of members who have themselves received enormous bonuses in the past; further believes that a cap, whether at £25,000 or any other level, does not meet the central requirement that there should be no automaticity of bonuses and that employees should be paid the rate for the job without bonuses which can perversely incentivise reckless and harmful transactions; and calls on the Government to introduce regulations speedily to ban the payment of bonuses and, where the state holds a significant proportion of the equity, to recover past bonus payments where they have still been paid even when the company or relevant division of the company made a substantial loss.

This motion has been signed by a total of 37 MPs.