MAIL Online: HSBC bankers are in line for bumper bonus payouts after an 'encouraging' jump in profits.
While the company's performance added impetus to a day of good economic news, the re-emergence of the City's discredited bonus system will be an embarrassment for Gordon Brown, who has promised to outlaw reckless behaviour in the Square Mile.
Taxpayer-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland has already started offering 'guaranteed' bonuses to traders in defiance of promises it made to rein in no-strings-attached rewards.
And Barclays is gearing up for massive payouts after profits rose 15 per cent in the first three months of 2009.
The culture of extravagant bonuses encouraged bankers to take ever bigger risks, laying the ground for the gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. >>> By Simon Duke | Tuesday, May 12, 2009
