A new government-sponsored crackdown on City pay was condemned yesterday as too extreme amid warnings that it risked triggering an exodus of star bankers and traders to more benign jurisdictions.
From the Times:
A new government-sponsored crackdown on City pay was condemned yesterday as too extreme amid warnings that it risked triggering an exodus of star bankers and traders to more benign jurisdictions.
The proposal to force City traders and dealmakers to wait five years for a quarter of their long-term bonuses was attacked as manifestly unreasonable and unfair.
“We risk seeing some of London’s star traders and deal rainmakers leave the country,” Nicholas Stretch, a partner with CMS Cameron McKenna, the City law firm, said.
However, Sir David Walker, publishing 39 proposals designed to prevent future banking crises, dismissed the claim as “hooey”.
He said: “If we think these are the right standards, we should implement them.”
Sir David outlined a string of measures to keep bonus arrangements from encouraging reckless behaviour and to foster better decision-making by bank directors and shareholders.
Banks will be forced to disclose pay levels of star personnel, while a quarter of all long-term bonuses will be deferred for three years, and a quarter for five years.
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