Nicolas Sarkozy threw down the gauntlet to other G20 nations tonight when he announced a new set of rules limiting traders’ bonuses and vowed to make the country the global “example” for the cleaning up of the banking system.
Nicolas Sarkozy threw down the gauntlet to other G20 nations tonight when he announced a new set of rules limiting traders’ bonuses and vowed to make the country the global “example” for the cleaning up of the banking system.
Speaking after a meeting with his country’s banking chiefs, the French president said that tougher controls would be imposed which would link bonuses to performance and would strip traders of their financial reward if they subsequently fail to deliver.
Other countries would do well to take heed, he added. “The issue of transparency and responsibility in bonuses will be central at the Pittsburgh [G20] summit,” said Sarkozy, who is flying to Berlin on Monday for talks with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. “I’ll be flexible on practical details, but not on the substance.”
The French banking union said it would adopt the new rules with immediate effect. BNP Paribas, the bank which enraged the French public recently by setting aside a bonus package of €1bn (£870m) for its highest paid executives, said it would be cutting that package by half, to €500m, in accordance with the new guidelines.
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