Good news - RBS is about to become more like a proper bank

[sbakoola]

It happened to Natwest Markets and it will happen to RBS. Parts will get sold off and done away with and it will become a small player in investment banking.

History repeating itself in Bishopsgate, London.

A sad reflection on modern British Investment Banking.

I wish RBS had just not bought out ABN Amro and had risky investment ventures in the USA which dabbled in toxic assets.

[BrilloPad]

Here is another example:

"By rights, those shareholders should be hopping mad when they appreciate the contrast in fortunes: they are carrying a far greater share of the financial pain. Why on earth, they may ask, does chief executive Lloyd Blankfein think he can keep 44% of revenues for himself and his staff? Last year, the ratio was 39.3% and in 2009 it was 35.8%."

Source: Time for Goldman Sachs shareholders to get real on bonuses | Business | The Guardian

If banks are such high cost labour intensive operations then the job of their directors should be every year to cut costs whilst doing same job (supposedly good).

What would have happened if banks actually worked in the interest of shareholders? Profits would have been much higher and staff would have a LOT less motivation to make crazy deals to get their bonus and then leave. High profits would have meant that bank can have more capital to withstand bigger risks where as now most of money just paid to staff and the bank is left bear to suffer hefty losses.

If an American bank wants to hand out loads of cash to its staff then why do we care?

Better still GS pays large amounts of tax in the UK - both as a company and via staff taxes - and there is a trickle down effect too.

I agree about UK banks though - they need to be run for the benefit of the whole of the UK.

[DodgyAgent]

I think the real problem is that we have some very well paid contractors upset by the fact that there are other people in this world who earn more money than they do. What we have here is a "Hitleresque" hysteria similar to the anti semitic attitudes to Jews generated by the Nazis in WW2.
"Burn them" I hear - no matter that such an action would put huge amounts of people out of jobs who earn a fraction of that earned by the very IT contractors who have made so much money building the IT systems that have supported the banking systems.

Although AtW is right that the power of banks and their trading activities may need reform - and I use the phrase "may" because I dont understand really what banks do - (though this does'nt stop the left wing "rednecks" forming opinions), I sometimes think that it is one or two of you that should be burnt and not the bankers.

[DodgyAgent]

I agree about UK banks though - they need to be run for the benefit of the whole of the UK.

They should be run for the benefit of the shareholders in an environment that is beneficial for their clients, employees, directors and the economy of the country in which they operate.

[Mich the Tester]

Sas will be along shortly to call you all cretins.