Despite a pledge by its boss Antony Jenkins to show restraint on pay Barclays bank is expected to reveal on Tuesday that its bonus pot topped £2bn last year – more than it paid out in the previous 12 months.
If the 2013 bonuses match the average of £13.5bn paid each year across board for all the industry, the total will top £80bn by the end of 2014.
This is more than £1,000 for every man, woman and child in the UK and three times the £20bn of revenue HMRC collected from the banks in corporation tax, the bank levy and the bonus tax combined during the same period, according to the campaigners for a tax on financial transactions.
According to calculations by the Robin Hood tax campaign the bonuses being paid out could reverse all the £11.5bn additional public spending cuts announced at the 2013 spending review, or eliminate 10% of the 2012-2013 budgetary deficit, or pay for the disability living allowance with enough left over to scrap the bedroom tax.
This year's payouts will be the last before the European Union enforces a cap, limiting bonuses to 100% of salaries or 200% if shareholders give their support. Most banks are expected to ask their investors to back the higher proportion, including 81% taxpayer-owned RBS, and also to find ways to protect high earnings by devising third payments which count as neither salary nor bonuses. Barclays has starting telling those staff affected by the bonus cap – the most senior staff likely to be earning more than €750,000 (£622,000) – that they will receive a monthly role-based allowance.
If the 2013 bonuses match the average of £13.5bn paid each year across board for all the industry, the total will top £80bn by the end of 2014.
This is more than £1,000 for every man, woman and child in the UK and three times the £20bn of revenue HMRC collected from the banks in corporation tax, the bank levy and the bonus tax combined during the same period, according to the campaigners for a tax on financial transactions.
According to calculations by the Robin Hood tax campaign the bonuses being paid out could reverse all the £11.5bn additional public spending cuts announced at the 2013 spending review, or eliminate 10% of the 2012-2013 budgetary deficit, or pay for the disability living allowance with enough left over to scrap the bedroom tax.
This year's payouts will be the last before the European Union enforces a cap, limiting bonuses to 100% of salaries or 200% if shareholders give their support. Most banks are expected to ask their investors to back the higher proportion, including 81% taxpayer-owned RBS, and also to find ways to protect high earnings by devising third payments which count as neither salary nor bonuses. Barclays has starting telling those staff affected by the bonus cap – the most senior staff likely to be earning more than €750,000 (£622,000) – that they will receive a monthly role-based allowance.
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