Greedy bankers such as Sir Fred Goodwin could be jailed under tough new laws being drawn up by George Osborne.
Growing public outrage over the severe damage caused by the banking crisis has prompted the Chancellor to prepare a new criminal offence of ‘corporate negligence’ to punish reckless financiers.
The move comes just days before the annual City bonus season, which is expected to bring another round of bumper payouts despite the sluggish UK economy and families suffering a historic squeeze on household finances.
All three main parties are now competing to offer the most hardline policies on tackling ‘fat cats’, after their internal polling revealed the scale of voters’ fury at the level of executive pay.
Under the plan, being worked on behind the scenes at the Treasury, legislation would be introduced to prosecute any boss of a ‘systemically important financial institution’ whose actions had a significantly damaging effect on the wider economy.
The plan would mean that the chief executives of the big five banks: Bob Diamond at Barclays, Antonio Horta-Osorio at Lloyds TSB, Stuart Gulliver at HSBC, Ana Botin at Santander and Sir Fred’s successor at RBS, Stephen Hester – would all be at risk of imprisonment if they ‘crashed’ the banks and damaged the economy through their actions. » | Glen Owen | Saturday, January 07, 2012
