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Original poster

No bonuses for bankers at AIB - why doesn't our country have the balls to do this too???

56 replies

granted · 14/12/2010 21:25

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e15826ea-06fe-11e0-8c29-00144feabdc0.html#axzz187gGhLWe

The Irish are refusing to pay bonuses to failed Allied Irish Bank. They said, not unreasonably, that the bank could, of course, pay any bonus it wished - but would then forego state aid.

Why the hell couldn't we do that here? Lloys etc - still taking home billions of pounds in bonuses, despite the fact they wouldn't exist at all if it wasn't for the fact that we all bailed them out.

And before anyone tries the old 'but we have to pay them huge bonuses, or all that talent will just flee overseas' bollocks, try this article for size:

www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1338328/Bankers-use-blackmail-payouts.html

OP posts:
AitchTwoOh · 15/12/2010 11:30

(""fleeing overseas" is bollocks anyway. all the big overseas banks have bases in London so they would just flee to them - if they were going to flee anywhere!)" i don't understand this, ponders. do you mean that the AIB staff will come to their london office and expect to get paid?

it is unfortunate, i acknowledge, and leaves a bad taste, but these people are arrant money-chasers and will want to leave imo. sure, only the best ones will be in a position to be offered jobs elsewhere in the current climate, but that hardly leaves our state-owned banks in a good position if the best people have all buggered off.

Ponders · 15/12/2010 11:25

I heard a plausible explanation on the news yesterday - AIB don't want to pay the bonuses, but it's in the staff contracts that they have to, so the Irish govt is changing the law to prevent the staff suing the bank.

The UK banks (which partly belong to us now!) want to keep what they consider to be their best staff, so they will have to pay the bonuses, & the UK govt wants the banks we have a stake in to be as profitable as poss so that our stake can be sold later for more than was put in in the first place.

("fleeing overseas" is bollocks anyway. all the big overseas banks have bases in London so they would just flee to them - if they were going to flee anywhere!)

BeenBeta · 15/12/2010 11:24

Yes our Govt should do the same.

I do not for one minute beleive that all our bankers would decamp to Zurich except for the ultra high earners.

AitchTwoOh · 15/12/2010 11:19

granted, i already know a few peole working in zurich, they have an amazing lifestyle, it is very attractive to the best people, which would leave us the worse off.

AitchTwoOh · 15/12/2010 11:17

because they don't want their entire staff decamping to switzerland?

jackstarlightstarbright · 15/12/2010 11:16

Yes - I agree Brown and Darling slipped up there (probably too busy 'saving the world' Smile).

I'm sure that if UK banks require any further bailouts - Osborne will not be such a soft touch.