Darling’s agreement of the bank bonus

Under the terms of an agreement by Alistair Darling, banks will disclose levels of pay and allow for 'claw back' of payments for poor performances.

Britain's five biggest banks ( HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered) accept the principles on bonuses set out by the G20 at the Pittsburgh summit last week and pledge to work with the FSA in adopting pay reforms.
Much of what they signed up Wednesday is already in the Financial Services Authority's new code on pay, which comes into force on 1 January.

But despite agreeing to the principles , the banks aren’t restricting the size of the bonus and the ideal approach to the bonus issue still the international one.

Matthias Coene