This House would ban state-owned banks from paying out bonuses

DATE: Thursday, 20 January 2011

TIME: 7.30pm - 9.30pm

VENUE: Harcourt Arms, 32 Harcourt Street, W1H 4HX

MOTION: This House would ban state-owned banks from paying out bonuses

This year the banking sector is set to pay out billions of pounds in bonuses to staff. RBS may pay out £1bn in bonuses, Barclays close to £5bn. All this is going on against a background of cuts and austerity measures in many other sectors. There is enormous public resentment that a group of businesses which were seen to play a large part in causing the financial crisis and many of which only survived thanks to a large investment of public money are never-the-less not sharing the pain. But is this right? Some people would say that bankers are highly paid because they are in high demand. If no-one wanted banks they wouldn't get any money. Would anything actually improve if bankers gave up their bonuses? Or would our banking sector just become much less competitive?

Who is right? You decide.

Further reading:

The arguments banks use to justify bonuses (Financial News)

Bank bonuses not a done deal (Press Association)

Do bankers' bonuses really work (Times)

BBA statement on FSA review of remuneration code (British Bankers Association)

Bonus payments (Financial Times)

Banks fight to keep senior staff in battle for global talent (Financial Times)

There will be four speakers in this debate, each of whom will have five minutes to make their case. After that there will be an extensive Q&A session to allow the audience plenty of time to have their own say from the floor. The motion will then be put to a vote.

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CLDS