Northern Rock pays out £15 million in bonuses

Despite the fact that Northern Rock, the nationalised financial operation, reported losses for 2009 the company has confirmed that £14.9 million has been put aside for staff bonuses. This is despite the fact that the company received a £26 billion loan from taxpayers which has yet to be repaid in full and indeed was forced to put aside in excess of £1 billion against potentially "bad loans".

This revelation comes at a bad time for the UK government which has split Northern Rock into a "good bank" and a "bad bank" in the hope of being able to sell off the "good bank" and raise finance for the public purse. Taxpayers are becoming ever more dismayed at the excessive funding which has been channelled into the financial sector in the UK, both directly into Lloyds bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, and indirectly into the liquidity markets. So far UK taxpayers are down literally hundreds of billions of pounds and much of this will never be repaid despite an upturn in fortunes for the sector.

It is bizarre to think that some companies which owe UK taxpayer billions upon billions of pounds are still paying out millions of pounds in bonuses despite disappointing figures and difficult trading conditions.