City responds to Darling's bonus criticism
Guy Hands, head of the Terra Firma private equity group, has responded to criticism from Chancellor Alistair Darling that City bosses receive bonuses without justification.
Hauliers to call on Darling to scrap fuel duty increaseThe Chancellor said that bonuses to executives needed to be justified when given to people who seem to have not done anything to deserve them.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph Alistair Darling said firms needed to "behave responsibly".
He said, "There's absolutely nothing wrong with giving somebody a reward but at the present time when people are going through these difficulties that's something the boards have got to look at,"
"You have to ask - can you justify this? Can you say hand on heart this is the right thing to do? If you can't justify it to your next-door neighbour you should think again."
However Guy Hands has turned criticism back on the government by saying that its tax policies are partially responsible for the bonus culture.
The Sunday Telegraph has seen a letter to investors, written by Hands, alleging that the government's tax regimes encouraged "bonus chasing".
Hands said in the letter, "The future stability of the financial markets would be enhanced if other parts of the financial community followed [a private-equity remuneration model]."
Despite criticising the government, Hands also took aim at what he called "high profile people" who had lost their jobs as a result of the credit crisis but had still received large pay-offs.
Despite a significant slow down in the economy, last year City bankers received around 7 billion in bonuses.
- 1 RBS gets Chinese approval for Suzhou stake
- 2 June retail sales fall less than expected
- 3 Citi ends talks with Wells Fargo on Wachovia
- 4 Coordinated rate cuts spark Asia stocks rally
- 5 Dollar rally unstoppable
- 6 UK and Iceland in row over bank deposits
- 7 Iceland regulator takes control of Kaupthing bank
- 1 Dollar rally unstoppable
- 2 Markets nervous on return of short sellers
- 3 Lehman demise could end speculative raid on taxpayers
- 4 AIG in focus as financial meltdown spreads
- 5 Goldman and Morgan Stanley face biggest test
- 6 Lloyds says no comment on report of HBOS deal renegotiation
- 7 Rate cut to be passed on to savers
- 1 June retail sales fall less than expected
- 2 Pressure on G7 to act on crisis as Asia stocks plunge
- 3 Darling appeals for new ideas on crisis
- 4 Markets nervous on return of short sellers
- 5 Dollar rally unstoppable
- 6 Rate cuts alone won't fix financial problems
- 7 Europe's summit no cure for bank crisis
|
|
