Minister urges action over £1m earnings for bankers

Dec 2 2009 By nebusiness

AT LEAST 5,000 UK bankers will earn more than £1m this year unless action is taken, City Minister Lord Myners warned today.

He called on major shareholding institutions to tackle the issue immediately before it was too late.

Lord Myners said at question time that there was "precious little evidence" that people at the top of banks appreciated "the concern about these extraordinary levels of income".

He told the Lords: "I would estimate that at least 5,000 people working in the banking industry in the UK will receive, if nothing is done, remuneration in excess of £1m this year.

"I think the real responsibility here must lie with the shareholders. Accordingly I have written to the National Association of Pension Funds, the CBI and the TUC urging them to use their influence to persuade trustees to ask their fund mangers: ’What are you doing to stop these quite unreasonable and unjustified levels of remuneration?"’

He added: "The decisions about bonuses are going to be made over the next six to eight weeks and it is important our major institutions engage now with the companies and say that ’we will not support grotesque payments and if you persist in paying them we will exercise our votes to remove from the board the people who authorised them’."

Labour’s Lord Clinton-Davis had said there was widespread public concern that banks had shown little evidence they were "prepared to undertake the radical reforms that are required".

He described the conclusions of Sir David Walker’s report on corporate governance in the banking sector, which was published last week, as "woefully inadequate".

The report recommends that top earners should not be named but that banks should reveal the number of people earning more than £1m.