Quote:The EU, therefore, has delivered itself something of a publicity coup with its proposals to cap bankers' bonuses - although I defy anyone to show me where, in the legislative proposals, where this appears, much less in the European Parliament response.
Can't find it either,but is must be in there as many are commenting on it.
Quote:Robin Chater, Secretary General of the FedEE, said the “action is beyond the powers vested in the European Union under the EU Treaty. Article 153 (5) of the Treaty clearly states that EU legislative powers shall not apply to pay. Furthermore, even if the Council’s powers were not challenged in this matter financial institutions would remain free to increase base salaries to reward and retain key staff.”
http://www.telegraph.co....-and-self-defeating.htmlSo you may be right it may not even be an EU competence.They are just chancing their arms.
From the amount of proposals I think it is clear remuneration is a very small part of the picture.Bonuses are a symptom not the cause of the crisis in my view anyway,which was way too much leverage and not enough capital buffers.The main point of all these proposals is what should constitute bank "capital" and how liquid that capital should be,which gets very technical and boring unless you are a banker.I doubt any journalist would wade through that lot so they pick the populist headlines.
There has been a bit of a war going on between the US and EU about what can and can't be included as capital reserves The banks obviously want less so they can carry on as normal,the governments generally want that too so they can start lending again,but are concerned about letting the banks of the leash again(quite rightly).
The US,French and Germans all want specific exceptions to allow their banks to survive Basel rules,its a bit of a bun fight as all their banks are technically insolvent anyway and will die a death of a 1000 cuts,just depends how you want to fiddle your books until then.
Edited by user 28 February 2013 16:48:17(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
