BANK BONUS PAYMENTS

That this House believes that in the light of the fact that RBS will lose £8 billion this year and be forced to write-off a further £20 billion because of the reckless takeover of ABN Amro, yet still intends, despite being nearly 70 per cent. owned by the taxpayer, to pay £1 billion in bonuses this year, decisions on bank bonuses should be taken far more expeditiously than the year-long timespan accorded to the committee set up by the Treasury to investigate the issue; further believes that independent and robust judgments will not be reached by a committee composed of a chairman, Sir David Walker, and members who have themselves received enormous bonuses in the past; further believes that a cap, whether at £25,000 or any other level, does not meet the central requirement that there should be no automaticity of bonuses and that employees should be paid the rate for the job without bonuses, which can perversely incentivise reckless and harmful transactions; and calls on the Government to introduce regulations speedily to ban the payment of bonuses and where the state holds a significant proportion of the equity, to recover past bonus payments even where the company or relevant division of the company made a substantial loss.