Bankers bonuses

I see that:

"LLOYDS Banking Group, which yesterday successfully completed a record-breaking £13.5bn rights issue, is preparing to pay out its bonus pool in full. The move, which follows mounting anger in the City over the government’s super-tax, will see the firm having to hand over an estimated £100m in payments to the Treasury as part of the 50 per cent levy.

The payment of the bonuses, the bulk of which will be for amounts between £20,000 and £40,000, will surprise government ministers who expected most banks to rethink compensation policies in the light of the imposition of the bank bonus supertax in last week’s pre-Budget Report.

Lloyds’ bonus pool is expected to reach between a quarter and a third of that of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Only a very small number of its staff are in line for very large, £1m-plus payouts.

But City A.M. has learnt that Lloyds, which is still 43 per cent owned by the government, is determined to bite the bullet and pay bonuses it feels its staff deserve even if that means taking a substantial hit.

Just as remarkably, most other banks in the City are now preparing to follow suit, according to sources that have been involved in discussions between the different institutions. This is especially likely to be the case at many US firms, which feel they cannot allow massive pay differences to arise between London and New York. "

Interesting, very interesting. I expected that the big banks would cut back on bonuses but it seems not. This could mean that this one-off (yeah right) tax could net much more than the estimated £500 million. If so can you imagine any government stopping this source of tax revenue next year. Labour would happily take the money and could the Conservatives really do without it?