HSBC Hands Top Banker £9 million Bonus
TIMES ONLINE: One of the biggest bonuses seen this year for any London-based banker was revealed today as HSBC announced it had given Stuart Gulliver, its head of investment banking, a £9.8 million package.

Mr Gulliver was awarded a £9 million bonus on top of his £800,000 base pay for his "exceptional performance" in trebling the profits of his division to $10.5 billion, HSBC said.

The payment came as Michael Geoghegan, HSBC chief executive, confirmed that he will give his £4 million bonus to charity.

HSBC disappointed investors after full-year profits fell by 24 per cent to $7.1 billion (£4.7 billion) following a big write down of the value of its own bonds. Its shares lost more than 5 per cent, down 37.1p, to 682.46p. >>> Patrick Hosking and Catherine Boyle | Monday, March 01, 2010

France Follows Britain with Bank Bonus Tax
TIMES ONLINE: France is preparing to follow Britain's lead with a one-off 50 per cent tax on bankers' bonuses, according to a French Government source.

President Sarkozy is said to have agreed to include a levy on pay-outs of more than €27,000 in the French budget or in a forthcoming law on regulation of the financial services industry.

The tax will be paid by banks, according to the source.

A spokesman for Mr Sarkozy confirmed that he was planning a special tax on bank bonuses but added that the details had yet to be finalised, suggesting that the French head of state might yet row back from the 50 per cent rate.

The move comes after Britain announced a one-off tax on bonuses over £25,000. It follows a call a by Gordon Brown and Mr Sarkozy for a global levy on bank pay-outs in a joint article in the Wall Street Journal today.

''We agree that a one-off tax in relation to bonuses should be considered a priority, due to the fact that bonuses for 2009 have arisen partly because of government support for the banking system," the two leaders wrote.

'It is clear the action that must be taken must be at a global level. No one territory can be expected to or be able to act on its own." >>> Adam Sage in Paris and Emily Ford | Thursday, December 10, 2009

A Year After the Crunch, It's Boom Time Again for Bankers
A year after the global economy was brought close to collapse by reckless lending, investment banks are preparing to announce huge profits. Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: Investment bankers are about to enjoy a record bonus season as confidence surges in the financial markets.

Just 12 months after the global economy was brought close to collapse by reckless lending — forcing banks to turn to taxpayers for help — stock markets in London and New York are enjoying one of the strongest bull runs in decades and investment banks are preparing to announce huge profits.

In Britain, job losses slowed in the three months to August. Unemployment rose by 88,000 to 2.47 million, the lowest rise since July last year, and youth unemployment fell slightly. China reported strong trade figures and oil hit a high for the year.

Goldman Sachs, which employs 5,500 people in London, is expected to report a sharp rise in third-quarter profits today. Analysts estimate that, barring a major setback, the average London worker at Goldman will receive about $748,000 (£467,000) in salary and bonuses — 13 per cent higher than 2007 and more than double the 2008 average. >>> Patrick Hosking and Christine Seib | Thursday, October 15, 2009

Greed. Unadulterated Greed!
THE TELEGRAPH: Andrea Orcel, a London-based banking executive who worked for Merrill Lynch, is under investigation after receiving $36 million (£25.5m) in pay and bonuses last year.

Andrea Orcel, one of seven senior executives from investment bankers Merrill Lynch, is now under investigation. He received $36 million in pay and bonuses last year alone
Mr Orcel is one of seven senior executives from investment bankers Merrill Lynch subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General over bonuses.

Andrew Cuomo is investigating $3.6 bn (£2.5 bn) in bonuses paid by Merrill shortly before it was bought out by Bank of America (BoA) last September.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Orcel, 45, the company's top investment banker, and nine other colleagues got a total of $209m (£148m) in cash and stocks in 2008 at a time when Merrill's net loss rose to $27.6 bn (£19.5bn) and it had to be bailed out by the American taxpayer.

Mr Orcel has worked on some of the world's biggest investment-banking deals in recent years, including the highly damaging Royal Bank of Scotland takeover of the Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007, a deal for which he was paid a $12m (£8.5m) bonus.

The doomed deal was one reason why the Government was forced to take a 95 per cent stake in the bank. >>> By Nick Britten | Thursday, March 5, 2009

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Peter Oborne: Apocalypse Now? New World Order Could Have Devastating Implications for Western Nations
DAILY MAIL: Almost exactly seven years ago Al Qaeda terrorists targeted their hijacked planes into the Twin Towers at the heart of New York’s financial centre — and the world was transformed.

There were no deaths this week, but the effects of the carnage on the financial
markets will be far more profound and destabilising than the 9/11 atrocity.

For almost all of us, it will, I predict, be a change for the worse, and for a large
minority the consequences will be extremely distressing.

The Western world — Britain, Europe and the U.S. — has moved from excess to
austerity overnight. This week’s financial typhoon will savagely impact living
standards.

In due course, it will topple governments and lead to a permanent transfer of
economic and political power from Europe and America to the emergent and, in some
cases, such as China, semi-barbarous economies in the East.

I know I will be accused of being unnecessarily apocalyptic and irresponsibly
negative, but I believe that the greatest mistake we can now make is to
downplay the seriousness of the situation and bury our heads in the sand.

The seismic events which have seen the near-destruction of the investment banking sector and the collapse of insurance giant AIG are on the scale of the Great Crash of 1929.

That was such a disaster because it created conditions for the emergence of fascism in continental Europe and then World War II.

Although it is hard to predict the consequences, we should expect ramifications of equal significance — including the re-emergence of violent Far Right parties across the globe.

Some experts were talking this week as if the financial crisis was nearly over. They
 could not be more wrong. The downturn has only just begun — and for most citizens
uninvolved with finance the consequences have not been felt at all.

But they will be felt very soon and very brutally. The British economy is in the same position as the Texan coast earlier this month as Hurricane Ike approached — apparently calm, with life going on as normal, but an almighty storm is raging just
over the horizon and heading our way with terrifying speed. Peter Oborne: Apocalypse Now? New World Order Could Have Devastating Implications for Western Nations >>> | September 20, 2008

Cross-posted at A New Dark Age Is Dawning >>>

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