UPS v. RBS

At least, by fair means or foul, UPS make a whacking great profit.

RBS still owe us a considerable amount of dosh. When they've paid that back, they can pay whatever bonuses they want.

If Stephen Hester wants to leave if he doesn't get his bonus....................then it should be bye,bye 

From the Guardian

Royal Bank of Scotland stoked a political row on Thursday night after it announced it had awarded its chief executive, Stephen Hester, a bonus worth almost £1m.

The payment was derided as "utterly unacceptable" by one Liberal Democrat peer, while a Foreign Office minister calculated that Hester's package meant he was paid in three days what a soldier in Afghanistan, "risking his life", earned in a whole year.
The bailed-out bank attempted to justify the bonus – which is being paid in shares that Hester will be able to gain access to in 2014 – by saying it needed to reward the chief executive for the progress he had made in reducing the size of RBS.
Since he joined in November 2008, the bank has cut 33,000 jobs.
The bank also stressed that a bonus Hester had been awarded when he joined shortly after the £45bn taxpayer bailout in 2008 – worth £6.4m at the time – and which would have paid out this year, was now worthless. (I doubt it)
Sir Philip Hampton, the RBS chairman, said tonight: "The board is aware of the difficulties in trying to reconcile the competing objectives of all our stakeholders. This is especially true on the issue of pay."
Hampton will also not receive shares that he was awarded when he joined in 2009 after the bailout.
He said Hester's bonus – which is 60% of the maximum and will involve the award of 3.6m shares – was being granted as it "reflects progress in the categories agreed with our shareholders as set out in the remuneration report". The 3.6m shares are currently worth £963,000 and could rise or fall in value by 2014.
Hampton added: "His pay is strongly geared to the recovery of RBS, which he was recruited to turn around, having played no part in its collapse. The priority is to reshape a business that was far too big and far too risky, reducing legacy losses whilst improving performance in the group's strong core businesses."
Hampton argued that a "safer and more valuable RBS is in the interests of our customers, shareholders and the UK economy".
The size of Hester's bonus sparked a wave of criticism and calls for him not to accept the money.
Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat peer who resigned as a Treasury spokesman for his party a year ago over the lax treatment of the financial sector by the coalition, said the bank should realise that any bonus for Hester this year was "utterly unacceptable".
Oakeshott is concerned about the slow flow of lending to small businesses, which the major banks, including RBS, committed to last year under the Project Merlin agreement. "The bonus would be a reward for RBS's failure to lend to small business which was the key target," he said.
Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne, speaking on BBC1's Question Time, said that Hester should decline the bonus as "a question of honour".
"Even if there is a contractual opportunity for him to have it, it doesn't mean he has to accept it. He's already being paid more than £1m a year.
"His total package now means he gets paid in about three days what a soldier serving in Afghanistan, risking his life, gets in a whole year. I think he should reflect on that," the Liberal Democrat MP said.
Chris Leslie, Labour's shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said: "Nobody doubts that Stephen Hester has done some important things at RBS, but what this award shows is David Cameron's promises about reining in excessive bonuses at state-owned banks or using shareholder power have proved to be utterly worthless.
"Indeed, anyone who thinks it is acceptable to award a bonus of almost £1m on top of a basic salary of £1.2m in these tough times is desperately out of touch with millions of people who are struggling to make ends meet."
"Instead of fiddling at the margins of this issue, David Cameron should take proper action on excessive executive pay as well as agree to Labour's call for a new tax on bankers' bonuses this year to fund 100,000 jobs for young people."
A Conservative Party spokesman said: "This is a bit rich from Labour given that they completely failed to do anything to curb multimillion-pound bonuses during their time in government – which was when the worst excesses of the City occurred. It would clearly have been unacceptable for Stephen Hester's bonus to have been the same as last year. So we are pleased it is less than half of that this year."
"The government has also made clear that it's capping cash bonuses at RBS at £2,000 this year.
"We have been very clear that at RBS and in other banks the bonus pool has got to be considerably lower than it was last year."
Britain's biggest banks are expected to reveal bonus plans next month alongside annual results. Bob Diamond, boss of Barclays, could receive a share award worth nearly £10m.
Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group, announced he would forgo his annual bonus of up to £2.4m following his two-month leave of absence due to exhaustion. (from counting his money?)
It was unclear whether or not John Hourican, the boss of the RBS investment banking arm, would meet the performance criteria for him to receive shares worth up to £4m in April.
The row over Hester's bonus comes just days after the business secretary, Vince Cable, announced new proposals to crack down on excessive pay by giving shareholders a binding vote on executive pay deals. However, UK Financial Investments, which looks after the taxpayers' stakes in the bailed-out banks, is backing the award. Cable rejected calls from unions to give employees a greater say over executive pay.
David Hillman, spokesman for the Robin Hood Tax campaign, said: "Curbing Hester's bonus at state-owned RBS is a small step in the right direction but nowhere near enough. Having just heard our economy has shrunk again, it's beyond belief the government is letting other City fat cats off the hook."
The bonus is in the form of a so-called "share bank" and based on a share price of 26.75p – which was the RBS closing price on Wednesday. This is still well below the 50p at which the taxpayer bought its 82% stake in RBS.