Boris Johnson backs reduction of excessive banking bonuses
Boris Johnson has today appealed to those in the UK financial sector to reduce the amount of bonuses to be paid to employees and use some of these funds to set up new schemes to help small to medium sized businesses in the capital. When you consider that the Royal Bank of Scotland itself, even though it is 84% owned by UK taxpayers, was looking to pay upwards of £1.5 billion in bonuses this year, there is substantial money available for investment. But will we see UK banks "skim" money from their bonus pots to help small to medium-sized businesses?
We may well see a number of "gestures" from the banking community to reduce the criticism aimed at the sector from all areas of the UK population. However, whether we will see the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland scale back the £1.5 billion bonus pot to anything "acceptable" by the UK population remains to be seen. Taxpayers are furious about the use of their money, with billions of pounds already used to prop up the overall banking system while additional billions have been used to buy stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds bank. Boris Johnson is becoming more influential in the city but whether even he can turn the heads of the UK banking sector remains to be seen.
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