UK Weighs Super-Tough Bank Bonus Laws

Banks scramble to repay feds, free themselves from pay curbs

(NEWSER) - Treasury Department "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg plans to start capping the salaries of second-tier execs at firms that received government assistance, according to company and government officials. The $500,000 cap, already imposed on top exec salaries, may now be applied to hundreds of other employees. The move has spurred Citigroup to sell billions in shares to repay the US government, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. More»

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration intends to push for “very, very substantial change,” in the way Wall Street pays executives, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner tells Bloomberg. “I don’t think we can go back to the way it was,” he said, arguing that the current big-bonus status quo encourages too much risk-taking. The changes will be part of the administration’s larger regulatory overhaul. More»

COO, CFO, and general counsel stuck around to help trustee

(NEWSER) - MF Global may have gone down in a ball of flames, but its chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and general counsel are all likely to get six-figure performance-based bonuses anyway, the Wall Street Journal reports. All three execs stuck around after the crash to help trustee Louis Freeh deal with the firm's assets and pay creditors, and he's expected to ask a bankruptcy-court judge to approve bonuses for them and up to 20 other MF Global employees who stayed on. More»

Wall Street workers finding it difficult to get by, or so they say

(NEWSER) - Wall Street bankers received smaller bonuses this month, and it is really hard for them. If you're having trouble dredging up any sympathy, perhaps that's because you just don't understand what it's like to be in the 1%: "People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress," one Marks Paneth & Shron partner explains. "Could you imagine what it’s like to say, 'I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out?' How do you do that?" Bloomberg says that cuts to 2011 discretionary pay were at least 25% at Goldman Sachs and Barclays and that cash bonuses were capped at $125,000 at Morgan Stanley, but the New York Times says bonuses have been "merely bruised," and that total payouts are predicted to drop just 14% this bonus season. More fairly unbelievable tidbits from Bloomberg's tales of woe: More»

Matt Taibbi says bankers are still overpaid

(NEWSER) - Matt Taibbi was incredulous when he read a recent New York piece in which Wall Street denizens whined that Dodd-Frank was limiting their bonuses. "I watch what I spend," one banker lamented, "but my girlfriend likes to eat good food," which adds up fast. "Quelle horreur!" Taibbi quips in Rolling Stone , before shredding the argument. Actually, bank compensation is falling because of the European debt crisis. Bankers he knows are saying things like, "If the ECB doesn't come up with a Greek bailout package, I'm going to have to sell my children for dog food." And at some banks (like Goldman Sachs), bonuses are actually up relative to earnings. More»