RBS Risks Row Over 'Unacceptable' Stephen Hester £1m Bonus

[vetran]

I am disappointed that Stephen Hester has waived his bonus, my reasons are:

1. RBS is NOT a nationalised bank, it is still a public listed company, although with the government owning 83%;
2. The directors of RBS have a duty to act in the best interests of RBS, as such the risk of Hester resigning would have put at risk the stability of the bank;
3. The last government gave him the job, and now Labour have abandoned him for political point scoring, if Hester leaves, RBS will struggle to get someone to take the job;
4. Hester has been successful in reducing the vast potential liabilities that the taxpayer underwrites;
5. The share price is not the only thing, this is depressed due to the mess in Euroland, longer term this will right itself;
6. I am very disappointed that the conservatives have not backed him and set out why this bonus should be paid;
7. I expect nothing less from the liberals;
8. The tax and NIC would be payable at 52%!;
9. We are in danger of forcing bankers, business people and entrepreneurs out of the UK, as not a friendly place to do business.

This whole mess stems from the lack of regulation (removed by Gordon Brown) of the banks, a borrowing binge by government and the public and yes some irresponsible actions by the banks.

whs

[Freamon]

whs

Indeed. I find this sort of thing extremely annoying as it's a triumph of media nonsense witch hunt political pandering spineless arse covering bollocks over common sense.

[AtW]

I am disappointed that Stephen Hester has waived his bonus, my reasons are

He had more sense than you - I am glad he took this opportunity to waive a million quid (much less after tax) in order to make much more long term. This sort of thinking in a banker should be very much encouraged.

[BrilloPad]

He had more sense than you - I am glad he took this opportunity to waive a million quid (much less after tax) in order to make much more long term. This sort of thinking in a banker should be very much encouraged.

Well the £1m was in shares. Though I am sure his base of £1m will keep him warm at night.

[BrilloPad]

‘Chaos’ if we stop rich people giving money to rich people, claims Duncan-Smith

[Waldorf]

He had more sense than you - I am glad he took this opportunity to waive a million quid (much less after tax) in order to make much more long term. This sort of thinking in a banker should be very much encouraged.

It is more about the message that it sends, rather than the giving up of the bonus.

There seems to be a witch hunt against anyone who is successful at the moment and in the long term this will damage the economy.

We need to set out the case for wealth creators, these are the people who will get us out of this mess.

[BrilloPad]

We need to set out the case for wealth creators, these are the people who will get us out of this mess.

At the moment the hatchet seems to be out for bankers. Footballers, Authors, Actors, etcetc. seem unaffected.

Before the bank bailouts there was a case for bankers to be wealth creators. Expecially those in the city who carried on Britain's tradition of getting money out of foreigners. But since the bailout the pendulum has swong.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I agree pay shouldn't be determined by media witch hunt.

I agree with decent rewards for (all) wealth creators NB ordinary employees are helping.

I haven't seen much evidence of this bloke creating wealth - he's fired a load of people, hasn't increased the share price (so all of our pensions are tanking) and missed his business lending targets. However, if there's a cogent argument for why this entitles him to a bonus payout (not just crap like "he might leave" and "you have to pay for the best"), then let's hear it. There seems to have been precious little actual information in this debate.

[DodgyAgent]

Sometimes I think the banks should all up sticks and move their HQ and trading activities to Shanghai. When they lose a load of money or pay themselves bonusses with taxpayers' money and have to explain themselves to some Communist Party official, things could get quite amusing.

Some banks threaten to up sticks and go; I'll tell you what though, if the likes of Goodwin, Fuld and McPillock did what they did in China they'd be in labour camps by now, breaking rocks for the rest of their lives and eating rotten brown rice, mouldy fish heads and boiled dog's brains.

I saw this woman from the "High pay Commission" claiming that as RBS is a public sector service its executives should be rewarded according to public sector pay. Not only was this dishonest it also shows the the BBC has its own agenda in smearing executive pay.

For a start RBS is a business whereas othe public sector services are not. RBS is not part of a monopoly and succeeds or fails according to how it performs in the market. If it is going to compete in the market then it has to compete on executive and employee pay. In the public sector (as is clearly apparent- but that is another argument) they can employ any serial low life manager to run whatever they want. RBS on the other hand cannot afford the luxury of being allowed to run itself for the benefit of its employees and government.

If RBS employed any head of a public sector institute on £250,000 a year it would without doubt collapse bringing down with it the loss of thousands of jobs and huge losses of taxpayers money (something the public sector does very well at).

The core problem of executive pay is that there simply not enough top executives capable of running large listed companies. These companies are too big to be run according to left wing ideas of "fairness"
If I were Hester I would be busy talking to headhunters.

[bobspud]

I feel sorry for him getting dragged out and hung, just for taking what his package entitled him to. He didn't have to take the job when the government needed a replacement. He could have probably earned a good wage somewhere else without the stress of making a dog with fleas profitable. People are groaning about how many people are getting made redundant, but thats what restructuring involves. It's a crap place to be if you are let go, but its about making the figures nice for the markets not making someone a job for life.