£50m reward for the 'greedy' bank bosses
Banking bosses are accused today of bringing the economy to the edge of collapse through their 'excessive greed'.
Street of shame: Bank chiefs raked in massive pay while rank and file staff struggled.
The chief executives of just five banking giants were paid more than £50m in five years, according to a think-tank report.
And the authors say this is a conservative estimate, as it only includes their basic pay and bonuses.
The report, compiled by the Labour Research Department think-tank, will intensify the controversy over pay policies in the financial sector.
Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, the union which published the research, said: 'Boardroom pay practices are not only unjust. They have contributed to the worst financial crisis in decades.
'The reality for ordinary bank workers is insecurity, unpaid overtime, inferior pension schemes, onerous performance targets and below-inflation pay increases.
'For the culprits of the credit crunch, it was gold-plated pensions, golden handshakes and huge rewards for failure.
'Anyone who thinks that the free market is the way to organise the economy must still think the Titanic is seaworthy.' The report reveals that the bosses of the banks bailed out with £37bn of taxpayers' money have been handsomely rewarded for their work.
Between 2003 and 2007, Sir Fred Goodwin from the Royal Bank of Scotland got £15.5m in basic pay and cash bonuses.
Eric Daniels from Lloyds TSB got £10.2m and Andy Hornby from HBOS got £ 6.9m, according to an analysis of the banks' annual reports.
The other two bosses whose pay was analysed are Stephen Green of HSBC, who got £11.4m, and John Varley of Barclays, who got £10.1m.
The report comes after MPs on the Treasury Select Committee yesterday grilled the bosses of the nationalised banks Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley.
The new bosses at both companies are getting big bonuses.
Richard Pym, who was hired by Bradford & Bingley in August, will get a guaranteed cash bonus of £139,000 this year and £187,000 next year.
The bank's 1,100 workers will each get a bonus worth an average of 9% of their salary. John McFall, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, described the bank, Britain's biggest buy-to-let lender, as 'a shambolic organisation with a giant headache'.
At Northern Rock, new boss Gary Hoffman will also be paid a bonus. He said the exact amount has not yet been agreed with the Government.
The majority of Northern Rock's 4,000 workers will also get four separate bonus payments in the next three years.
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