Banker bonus cap row: Lawyers react to the European Court of Justice bonus cap rebuffal November 20, 2014 The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has rebuffed George Osborne's battle against banker bonus caps – but what do the City's lawyers think of it? To recap, today Niilo Jääskinen, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice's (ECJ), said the bonus caps – which limit bankers' bonuses at 100 per cent of [...]
The European Court of Justice has dealt a blow to George Osborne’s banker bonus cap challenge November 20, 2014 The European court should reject George Osborne's challenge to the EU's cap on banker bonuses, according to one of its senior advisors. Niilo Jääskinen, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice's (ECJ), has said that all the UK’s pleas should be dismissed and that the action should be scrapped. He said that the [...]
Why predictions of rapid real wage growth are likely to be proved wrong November 18, 2014 IN 2014, the UK economy is likely to have grown by over 3 per cent, employment growth has been remarkably strong, some progress has been made on reducing the deficit, and inflation remains low and stable, despite yesterday’s slight uptick to 1.3 per cent on the consumer price index (CPI). But of all the statistics [...]
Is Mark Carney right that clawback may need to cover all bankers’ pay, not just bonuses? November 17, 2014 Alex Edmans, a finance professor at London Business School and Wharton, says Yes. Pay packages should ensure that executives act in the long-run interest of their firms. Short-run bonuses incentivise bankers to boost near-term earnings at the expense of long-run value – such as writing subprime loans or manipulating rates. Clawbacks will deter myopic actions, [...]
Mark Carney: EU bonus cap has “unfortunate” side-effects – reform bankers’ pay instead November 17, 2014 Bank of England governor Mark Carney says massive fines for bad behaviour among bankers hasn't done enough – and that their pay may be overhauled even further in order to "help rebuild trust in financial institutions". New measures could include "clawback" options for bankers' salaries as well as their bonuses, and even paying out "performance [...]
Five banks are taking back traders’ bonuses because of the Forex rigging scandal November 15, 2014 Five of Britain's biggest banks are preparing to take back millions of dollars worth of traders' bonuses, in an attempt to make reparations for their involvement in the Forex rigging scandal. According to the FT, the banks going ahead with the clawbacks are UBS, RBS, Citigroup, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Earlier [...]
Virgin Money IPO: Jayne-Anne Gadhia to get £1m bonus, but misses a bigger payout on low valuation November 13, 2014 Virgin Money’s chief executive yesterday received a bonus of almost £1m for successfully floating the business at a valuation of £1.25bn. Jayne-Anne Gadhia was given around one-third of a million shares, amounting to 0.086 per cent of the bank’s stock and valued at just under £1m. But she missed out on a bigger [...]
As the Bank of England predicts low inflation for longer, is real wage growth here to stay? November 12, 2014 Rob Wood is chief UK economist at Berenberg Bank, says Yes. Real wage growth is here to stay, but it’s important to keep some perspective. We are finally seeing wages rise above inflation, partly because petrol and food price falls have dragged the latter down. Money wage growth remains weak, if better than a few [...]
UK unemployment sticks at 6 per cent – as wage growth finally rises above inflation November 12, 2014 UK unemployment remained flat at six per cent in the three months to September, slightly missing analyst expectations, official statistics published this morning showed. In total there were 30.79m people in work, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was 112,000 more than for April to June 2014 and 694,000 more than for a year [...]
Honey, I‘ve shrunk your bonus November 10, 2014 Bonuses on Wall Street could be down as much as 10 per cent for some professionals this year, according to a closely watched survey by consulting firm Johnson Associates. Overall, the firm expects 2014 bonuses to be flat compared with last year. However, the size of bonuses varies significantly across the industry. Stock and bond [...]