03 Dec 09 RBS Bosses May Quit

Well, go then! If you and your colleagues hadn’t been so greedy over the last few years at least, and taken all the money you did, while running the banking industry worldwide into the ground, then none of us would be in this mess now.

The Royal Bank of Scotland was so badly mis-managed that the UK Government felt necessary to take a 70% stake in the bank (and a 43% one in Lloyds).

Now, those at the top are customarily paid huge bonuses based on performance. However, with so much money owed to the taxpayer (remember that the Government doesn’t have any money of it’s own), is it right and proper that these executives should be paid up to £1.5billion in these bonuses this year. This is some 50% more than last year.

The old cry is always that if we don’t overfeed these leeches at the top of the pile, they’ll leave and go elsewhere.

Some have reportedly been advised to resign.

I am still amazed that very few of these executives have faced legal proceedings. Bernard Madoff might have systematically ripped off his ‘investors’ for a number of years, but the average bank all the way down to High Street level has been doing the same thing for many years too.

While Lord Mandelson has pointed out that the Government doesn’t run RBS, it’s board and management does, that surely doesn’t give the board and management the right to award themselves such huge sums of money, when almost three quarters of their business is being propped up by the Government.

Heck, if, as a small businessman, had a bridging loan from one of these banks, and decided to use my profits to pay out extra to myself and my staff, instead of paying the loan back, they’d have me in court before I could say ‘bailout’

As for those that scream about Government control, I quite agree that Government needs to stay out of business as much as possible. However, Government surely has a responsibility to formulate and prosecute laws that ensure that people aren’t ripped off, especially, when it’s our money

So, you greedy bastards, pay back your debts first, before you start spending other peoples money lining your own pockets yet again, as you’ve already done to excess in the past.

Tags: banking, Finance, Lord Mandelson, madoff, nailout, RBS, UK, UK Government, untrustworthy