Osborne’s banking proposals just “populist headline-grabbing” says analyst

A leading banking analyst today described George Osborne’s proposals on bankers’ bonuses as “populist headline grabbing” and a rehashing of ideas already put forward by the G20 more than 50 days ago.

Chair of the Financial Services Club Chris Skinner told Sky News:

“Well it’s interesting what Mr Osborne’s announced in that actually it’s just populist headline-grabbing to a certain extent because we can’t act unilaterally on the bonus culture crackdown and what he’s actually intimating is what was agreed by the G20 last month which is that bonuses should be paid more in shares over a period of three years and not immediately given in cash …

“I think he has a point but the idea that he’s putting across is an idea already agreed by the G20 in principle across all the countries of the world. We can’t behave unilaterally just as Britain.”

The Leaders’ Statement from the Pittsburgh summit in late September said:

“Reforming compensation policies and practices is an essential part of our effort to increase financial stability. We fully endorse the implementation standards of the Financial Stability Board aimed at aligning compensation with long-term value creation, not excessive risk-taking, including by (i) avoiding multi-year guaranteed bonuses; (ii) requiring a significant portion of variable compensation to be deferred, tied to performance and subject to appropriate clawback and to be vested in the form of stock or stock-like instruments, as long as these create incentives aligned with long-term value creation and the time horizon of risk.”