FSA to get powers to curb UK banker bonuses – Darling

LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) – City regulators are to be given new powers to stop bankers receiving bonuses that “would cause instability” to the financial system, British finance minister Alistair Darling said in a newspaper interview on Sunday.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph he said banking needed to change and that financiers had to see themselves as “fellow citizens” who had been bailed out by the taxpayer.

The chancellor said that some of the huge bonuses paid to bankers around the world were viewed by the public as “ludicrous”.

“(We will be) giving the Financial Services Authority (FSA) powers if necessary to tear up contracts that would result in payments being made that would cause instability,” Darling told the paper.

“I’ve always been clear that I’m not against people being rewarded for hard work. What has gone wrong is where people were paid to take excessive risk and they were rewarded to do things that ultimately brought the banking system crashing down.”

via FSA to get powers to curb UK banker bonuses-Darling | Industries | Financial Services & Real Estate | Reuters.

Related posts:

1. Manufacturing Powers Growth in Emerging Markets
2. China currency move a matter for medium-term – IMF
3. China rounds on U.S. rates as global economic risk
4. Ron Paul: Be Prepared for the Worst
5. Obama: Too much debt could fuel double-dip recession