£3.5 Million in Shares to be Given to Top RBS Execs

£3.5 Million in Shares to be Given to Top RBS Execs

With the amount of money bankers get and the money they’ve made by mis-selling products like PPI, you’d be forgiven for thinking that these people get paid enough to do the job that they’re doing, never mind the bonuses they get too.

Well, the Royal Bank of Scotland has recently unveiled plans to give 10 of their top executives £3.5 million worth of shares. This has come about as RBS attempt to avoid strict EU rulings on bonuses that are in place within the banking industry.

Taxpayer Owned

RBS was bailed out during the financial crisis and they are currently 81% owned by the taxpayer and in 2013 they reported losses of £8.2 billion. These losses were linked to the continued restructuring costs and misconduct fines.

Earlier this year, RBS planned to pay bonuses twice the size of their employees’ salaries but this was blocked by the Government. This plan was blocked by the Treasury who said that there would be no rise whilst RBS was ‘still in recovery’.

These new rules mean that while the bank is still taxpayer owned, if they want to make any pay outs like the planned bonus ones, they need to go and get approval from their shareholders.

EU Rules

If any bankers were to be paid any bonuses, due to EU rules they can only be paid annual bonuses which are worth the same as one year’s salary or double the employee’s salary if shareholders approve the package.

The bank has previously stated that they need to be able to compete with rival banks when it comes to remuneration or they will be faced with losing their top talent. In response to this, the Government has since said that they will not allow the bonuses to rise while they still see the bank as being in recovery.

Bonuses

The Head of RBS’s ‘bad bank’, Rory Cullinan is the one who set to receive the biggest pay out of the lot. He is set to receive shares worth £530,000 which is the as him receiving 100% of his salary so far this year.

In slightly more positive news surrounding RBS, the new Chief Executive Ross McEwan has surrendered his 2014 bonus for a period of 18-months.

McEwan, 56, who took up his new role in October last year, will take no bonus for his role in the bank for the time he was involved last year and also the whole of this year however, he is taking a £1m salary so it isn’t like he’s in need of anymore money.

Banking Culture

Since the banking and financial crisis started in 2008 when the UK slowly started slipping into a recession, the culture at banks and more specifically, the culture around bankers bonuses, has come under much scrutiny.

Last month it was revealed that British banks are set to face their toughest bonus rules under new claw back plans that were announced.  These plans also suggest that the bankers could have their bonuses taken off them even after they’ve been paid them.

So, it would seem that the bankers aren’t happy with what they already earn; they want even more when it comes to money. Not like they’ve made enough out of the general public.

In case you’d forgotten, the banks have been guilty of mis-selling a number of different products such as PPI and packaged bank accounts. If you feel like you’re a victim of being mis-sold one of these products then you can start your claim with us here at Your Money Claim today.

RBS Bonuses