BRITISH CHANCELLOR of the exchequer Alistair Darling urged pay restraint and moderation from UK banks, and still they raised compensation.
Barclays Capital, the investment-banking unit of Barclays, increased its pay and bonuses per employee by about 93 per cent in 2009, according to company filings. Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain’s biggest government-owned bank, raised total compensation per employee by about 73 per cent last year.
Of the United Kingdom’s three largest banks, HSBC was the only one where pay declined slightly in its investment bank.
“The banks are just paying lip-service to what they think politicians and the public want to hear while carrying on as normal,” said Chris Roebuck, a visiting professor at Cass Business School in London. “The apparent changes they’ve made to compensation are just an exercise in smoke and mirrors.”
In December, Mr Darling introduced a one-time 50 per cent levy on discretionary bank bonuses of more than £25,000 to encourage banks to build up their capital.
The UK treasury, which initially said the tax would raise £550 million, now estimates it may net as much as £2 billion. – (Bloomberg)
