MAIL Online: Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling today signalled that the era of boardroom fat cats is over for banks forced to accept help from the taxpayer.
The Prime Minister and the Chancellor made it clear that directors and senior executives will be expected to accept far less lavish pay packages in return for the Government bail-out.
Boardroom pay in the banks has exploded in recent years as their profits have swelled.
The four banks seen as most likely to make use of taxpayer funds - HBOS, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland - paid their directors more than £64million last year.
The best-paid chief executive was RBS's Sir Fred Goodwin, who earned £4.19 million. Initial reports that Sir Fred and RBS chairman Sir Tom McKillop would be forced to stand down as part of a deal with the Government were swiftly denied.
Sir Fred has been heavily criticised for buying Dutch bank ABN last year as the credit crunch began to unfold.
Although the Government has no legal power to impose pay ceilings, it will have massive leverage over any bank that has the taxpayer as a major shareholder.
The Government will also want to be reassured that traders are no longer rewarded with huge bonuses for taking massive risks.
At a press conference this morning the Prime Minister said: "We're insisting in the individual negotiations with the banks that we have to be satisfied with executive remuneration." Fat Cat Bank Bosses Facing End of Massive Pay Deals in Return for Taxpayer Bail-out >>> By Jonathan Prynn and Sri Carmichael | October 8, 2008
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