From The Sunday Times
January 17, 2010

Wall Street giants pay staff $100bn

Iain Dey
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Four of Wall Street’s biggest banks will this week reveal plans to pay their staff a total of close to $100 billion (£62 billion), reigniting the row over bankers’ bonuses.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are all expected to announce bumper pay awards for staff alongside full-year results.

Wall Street’s big payouts come as the remuneration committee at Royal Bank of Scotland prepares to meet this week to determine the size of its bonus pot.

RBS — 84%-owned by British taxpayers — has indicated it wants to pay its investment bankers about £1.5 billion in bonuses, even though it will make a loss this year at group level. The figure could creep higher if it attempts to shelter its bankers from the impact of Alistair Darling’s 50% tax on bonuses.

Lord Myners, the City minister, has called a meeting of global finance ministers and regulators in Downing Street this month to discuss other levies that could be introduced to prevent future crises. George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said this weekend he would support calls for a new global charge on banks.

America’s bonus payouts come days after President Barack Obama revealed plans for a windfall tax on banks in an effort to curb the “obsceneâ€