Beat the Banker

[Jimbob]

you sure that wasn,t a punishment.

[red devil]

I did say it was during a downturn!..

[Jeremy]

SMG... I'm not saying that everyone at RBS should get huge bonuses. I'm just saying that realistically, it is necessary to pay a bonus to the best people to get them to stay.

Caps on bonuses is certainly one suggestion... not sure how it could be rolled out across the industry though, given that people in different roles get paid very different ratios of basic vs bonus.

[SeanMacGabhann]

yep - how it would roll out and be implemented is, as we say in business "the challenge"

;-)

[LuvPeckham]

Speculation here, but if no one in an industry received bonuses, then there wouldn't be a need to pay them a bonus to stay at a firm as no one is offering a bonus deal to tempt them away and they would take a job based purely on salary and their desire to do that job.

It seems to work well in most other industries (Teaching, Nursing, Civil Service* IT, Retail**.....)

*Okay MP's excluded who seem to use perks as a bonus

**excluding firms like John Lewis where the staff are partners in the company

[red devil]

A ban on bonuses would sort that problem out...

Most peoples's salaries are weighted in accordance to their level of expertise, skills, experience etc. What Joe Public can't understand is this expectation of bonuses regardles of performance, as well as a high salary...

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> ....it is necessary to pay a bonus to

> the best people to get them to stay.

[Jeremy]

"desire to do that job" - are you serious? People don't work in finance for fun.

[Jeremy]

OK, so banning bonuses in banking. You would have two choices...

1- ramp up salaries to incorporate the current bonus

2- keep salaries as they are, and effectively lose London's banking industry (and therefore a huge chunk of GDP) to other countries.

[SeanMacGabhann]

wellll

#1 - why would you have to do that? As the rewards in parts of this industry are so far out of what with most people you could half them and still be more attractive to the "talent" we are so keen to keep

#2 - much of the talk from global leaders is about tackling the root problems internationally - surely this could be incorporated into such controls?

[Jeremy]

I'm not saying you have to do #1, I'm just saying what the options are.

#2... maybe, but I'd be surprised. There is no one single organisation who could implement such reforms. Sorry... it will never happen.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I dunno - the world is facing such a major problem, co-operation may be the only way out of this. Bankers have had massive regulation heaped upon them in the past and they may have to swallow it again.

The mindset that says "do as we say or we will follow the money elsewhere" is a busted flush

[Jah Lush]

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> "desire to do that job" - are you serious? People

> don't work in finance for fun.

I certainly don't work for fun either. It just helps to pay for it and if I was lucky enough to get a big fat bonus, well I'd be laughing all the way to the bank.