To pay or not to pay.. bonus's for bankers...

From the BBC:

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced losses for 2009 of £3.6bn ($5.5bn), after struggling with billions of pounds of bad loans.

Despite the losses, the bank is set to announce it will pay bonuses totalling £1.3bn to its staff.

But the bank's head, Stephen Hester, said it had lost money by not paying big bonuses to retain productive staff.

The UK taxpayer owns 84% of RBS after the government bailed out the bank at the end of 2008.

Chief executive Mr Hester told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We've had a small experiment in this respect... some of our best-performing people have been leaving in their thousands.

"The people who left us last year, I believe, would have increased our profits by up to £1bn beyond the ones that we've got."

Mr Hester has decided not to take his own bonus, which would have been £1.6m.

The company's £3.6bn loss was lower than the £5bn many experts were expecting and is well below the £24bn it lost in 2008.

Full article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8534694.stm


Great, so your losing money, but to retain key staff and curb the losses, you need to pay out bonus's, which you know will cause a media back lash and worry your share holders. The joys of being at the helm of a (nearly)nationalised bank

__________________
cheers
Steve

Online Marketing | Free USA Business Directory | My Local Blog | Jobs Vitae

Forum Rules FAQ's & Help

If you're here to spam, then expect a ban Copy & Paste monkeys - we're watching you!

Actually Steve I am all for a bonus for the right person but really the levels of bonus they get are obscene so agree with you as it does happen.

Mike

__________________
My own Bonsai Blog site


Click HERE to make a clicking sound.

I've no problems with bonus's as a means to reward and motivate your good employees, but with the scandulous abuse of the bonus system, its open season for the 24 hour media, who hear bank and bonus in the same sentence. This then has a knock on affect with the share price...

Then of course don't pay the bonus's and you lose your key talent, as unmotivated bright sparks always jump ship, leaving the moaners and the plodders

Think I'll stick to running a small private biz and keep my head under the radar Just in case I'm ever offered the CEO role lol

__________________
cheers
Steve

Online Marketing | Free USA Business Directory | My Local Blog | Jobs Vitae

Forum Rules FAQ's & Help

If you're here to spam, then expect a ban Copy & Paste monkeys - we're watching you!