Thursday 25 February 2010

RBS to pay £1.7bn in bonuses despite £3.6bn loss

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which is 84 per cent owned by the British taxpayer, will pay out up to £1.7 billion in bonuses to its bankers after reporting a £3.6 billion pre-tax loss for the past financial year.  The loss for the 12 months to December 31 is less than the £5 billion expected and far below the £24.3 billion loss that RBS reported for 2008, a record for any British company.  Stephen Hester, the chief executive of RBS, who replaced Sir Fred Goodwin, said that he was obliged to pay out commercially competitive bonuses to retain staff, adding that the “thousands of best-performing people” who left last year could have increased the banks’ profits by £1 billion.














FULL TIMES ARTICLE HERE