Cyprus-Forum.com

[yialousa1971]

Barclays and RBS paid 523 staff more than £1m a year

Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays made pay revelations despite both banks being fined millions for manipulating Libor

Jill Treanor

The Guardian, Friday 8 March 2013 19.11 GMT


Barclays has disclosed new details of the salaries, bonuses and the long-term share awards earned by its staff. Photograph: Graeme Robertson


A fresh row over City pay erupted on Friday when two of Britain's biggest banks, Barclays and bailed out Royal Bank of Scotland, revealed that 523 of their staff took home more than £1m in 2012.

RBS, which is 83% owned by the taxpayer, was accused of having the "best paid public sector workers by a mile" after admitting for the first time that 95 bankers were handed £1m last year even though the bank was hit by a £390m fine for rigging Libor and suffered a prolonged computer breakdown.

Barclays, fined £290m for manipulating the benchmark interest rate, paid 428 staff more than £1m. The pay deals at Barclays eclipsed those at HSBC, Britain's biggest bank, which earlier this week said 204 of its employees received £1m or more.

The scale of the pay five years on from the banking crisis prompted TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said to say it justified the EU cap on bonuses. "It is as if the financial crisis never happened," she said, describing the pay as "obscene".

Barclays highlighted the discrepancies between its highest and lowest paid staff by admitting that 1,338 of its bankers received more than £500,000 while more than half its workforce – 71,581 staff – took home £25,000 or less, prompting Dominic Hook, national officer at the union Unite to hit out against "the rampant inequality" in the 140,000 strong workforce.

At RBS, where chief executive Stephen Hester received £2.2m – when part payment of his 2010 bonus is included but before a £1.6m award of shares he could get in three years – the highest pay for one individual, £5.5m, contrasted with the average pay of £34,000. Some 1,950 RBS staff earn more than £250,000.

Lord Oakeshott, Lib Dem peer, said of the RBS bankers: "They're the best paid public sectors workers by a mile, in a bank that keeps failing the public by failing to lend. Let's end this nonsense and nationalise RBS now".

By publishing pay deals of those earning more than £1m the banks are complying with proposals first set out by Sir David Walker – the new chairman of Barclays – when Labour was in power but rejected by George Osborne when he became Chancellor. Osborne has welcomed the disclosure as allowing "shareholders to properly hold institutions to account for how they pay their staff."

But it was Walker's appointment at Barclays that sparked the disclosures which showed that five individuals at the bank and one at RBS earned more than £5m.

David Hillman, spokesman for the Robin Hood Tax campaign, said the payouts showed "just how out of sync with the rest of reality banks have become".

The number of millionaires at Barclays is down and while RBS did not provide comparisons it is thought to have paid more than 500 bankers over £1m before the government bailout.

The top eight highest paid executives at Barclays reporting to the chief executive received between £3.7m and £1.2m a year – a total of £23m. The individuals do not need to be identified but it appeared that Rich Ricci, who runs the Barclays investment bank, slumped to the seventh highest paid with £1.5m. For RBS the eight highest paid shared £14m although the highest paid – thought to be Ellen Alemany, who runs the US division – received £4.8m. Other top RBS earners are thought to include Nathan Bostock, head of risk, who got £3.1m, head of business banking Chris Sullivan who received £2m, and Ross McEwan the new head of the retail bank with £1.7m. The finance director Bruce van Saun, the only other executive on the RBS board with Hester, received a £980,000 bonus to take his total to £1.7m and he will get a 2% rise in his £750,000 salary this year.

Barclays also complied with rules showing that it has 393 "code staff" – those who monitor risks or take risks – who were paid an average of £1.3m. At RBS the 368 code staff had an average of £701,000.

At Barclays, keen to avoid a repeat of last year's revolt over pay, former chief executive Bob Diamond received £1.9m after the bank paid £602,000 towards his tax. He forfeited £19m of shares when he left and will be continued to paid until July this year – when he stands to get a £2m lump sum –and benefits such as health insurance and a driver of £400,000.

His successor Antony Jenkins, promoted from running the retail bank, was paid a salary for the full year – he became chief executive at the end of August – of £833,000, pension contributions of £215,000 and benefits of £81,000, while £2.1m of plans from previous years paid out.

Jenkins was awarded £4.4m of shares which pay out in three years time; the value of £1.5m is assigned for 2012. The bank produced a figure for his pay of £2.5m.

Marcus Agius, the former chairman, is receiving £175,000 as an adviser to the Barclays corporate bank.

The bank said: "We have made substantial reductions in remuneration, including clawing back £300m of unvested deferred and long-term incentive awards and risk adjustments of £860m to our 2012 incentives pool to reflect the Libor investigation and other risk issues in 2012."

Barclays said the 45% of all investment bank did not receive bonuses although the bank is still paying out £1.8bn in total to its staff after profits dropped to £246m from £5.9bn a year ago. Top line profits rose 25% to £7bn.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013 ... ions-libor

[supporttheunderdog]

Britain about to run out of gas

Gas is running low as chill continues
Gas supplies are rapidly dwindling as the cold weather continues into spring, energy chiefs have said, with the country braced for heavy snow storms over the next week.

The coldest March in decades is putting a strain on the supply of stored gas, according to a fresh analysis that predicts reserves could be depleted as soon as April 8.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... inues.html

[kurupetos]

Britain about to run out of gas

Gas is running low as chill continues
Gas supplies are rapidly dwindling as the cold weather continues into spring, energy chiefs have said, with the country braced for heavy snow storms over the next week.

The coldest March in decades is putting a strain on the supply of stored gas, according to a fresh analysis that predicts reserves could be depleted as soon as April 8.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... inues.html

Apparently the costly R&D on Sustainable Energy has not been able to produce anything useful. Do you know how many billions have been trashed by the infamous Research Councils?

All UK universities are bloody worthless. I'm glad I didn't choose to study there.

[supporttheunderdog]

probably billions,,,,but i think you are generalizing by saying all UK universities are worthless, some of the newer ones' certainly, but even some of them had a good reputation when they were polytechnics..

[kurupetos]

probably billions,,,,but i think you are generalizing by saying all UK universities are worthless, some of the newer ones' certainly, but even some of them had a good reputation when they were polytechnics..

When they were polys they were at least honest with themselves and their students on their capabilities.

[supporttheunderdog]

And now we can apparently get a ride home c/o HMG and even a ride to the airport...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2298236/Revealed-secret-plan-airlift-stranded-Britons-Cyprus-Military-rescue-60-000-expats-island-faces-financial-meltdown.html

Sorry GiG but as matters stand I will NOT be taking up this offer...

[cyprusgrump]

And now we can apparently get a ride home c/o HMG and even a ride to the airport...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2298236/Revealed-secret-plan-airlift-stranded-Britons-Cyprus-Military-rescue-60-000-expats-island-faces-financial-meltdown.html

Sorry GiG but as matters stand I will NOT be taking up this offer...

Nor me...

[supporttheunderdog]

And now we can apparently get a ride home c/o HMG and even a ride to the airport...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2298236/Revealed-secret-plan-airlift-stranded-Britons-Cyprus-Military-rescue-60-000-expats-island-faces-financial-meltdown.html

Sorry GiG but as matters stand I will NOT be taking up this offer...

Nor me...

not in the light of the weather and this

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9950115/Bank-shortfall-looms.html

Britain’s banks are under-capitalised. Not just by a little bit, but a lot. Under the Bank of England’s worst-case estimate, lenders need to raise something in the order of £60bn, more than three times the amount required to bail out Cyprus, which gives some idea of the scale of the problems officials think the industry faces

and

by the FPC’s calculations, banks could need a further £35bn in capital if they applied more realistic risk weightings to their asset portfolios, as well as a further £15bn to cover new losses and as much as £10bn to cover compensation costs for customers who were mis-sold financial products.

Good Job I don't have money there, either....

[CBBB]

And now we can apparently get a ride home c/o HMG and even a ride to the airport...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2298236/Revealed-secret-plan-airlift-stranded-Britons-Cyprus-Military-rescue-60-000-expats-island-faces-financial-meltdown.html

Sorry GiG but as matters stand I will NOT be taking up this offer...

Nor me...

not in the light of the weather and this

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9950115/Bank-shortfall-looms.html

Britain’s banks are under-capitalised. Not just by a little bit, but a lot. Under the Bank of England’s worst-case estimate, lenders need to raise something in the order of £60bn, more than three times the amount required to bail out Cyprus, which gives some idea of the scale of the problems officials think the industry faces

and

by the FPC’s calculations, banks could need a further £35bn in capital if they applied more realistic risk weightings to their asset portfolios, as well as a further £15bn to cover new losses and as much as £10bn to cover compensation costs for customers who were mis-sold financial products.

Good Job I don't have money there, either....

I am the lucky one, I haven't got any money anywhere!

[supporttheunderdog]

you and me both... we should be laughing all the way to the bank!