Royal Bank of Scotland to miss government's £16bn lending target
Friday 6 November 2009 08.56 GMT
Staff costs at its investment banking arm have risen to £2.5bn - but anyone earning over £39k can't receive a bonus this year
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to miss its lending target for this year. Photograph: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images
Royal Bank of Scotland warned today that it would not meet the lending targets it had been set by the government as it reported a third quarter loss of more than £2bn.
With bonus policies under scrutiny, the Edinburgh-based bank also revealed that staff costs in its investment banking arm had risen to £2.5bn, giving an indication of the size of the payouts bankers in this division can expect to receive.
As the bank is to be 84% owned by the taxpayer as a result of insuring £282bn of troublesome loans through the government's asset protection scheme (APS), RBS has agreed not to pay cash bonuses to anyone earning more than £39,000, raising speculation that key bankers in its investment banking division will leave. Any bonuses will be paid in shares or debt.
Stephen Hester, the chief executive whose own bonus is linked to achieving the lending targets, repeated today that the "journey" to recovery will "take some years". "It is a marathon not a sprint," he said.
Friday 6 November 2009 08.56 GMT
Staff costs at its investment banking arm have risen to £2.5bn - but anyone earning over £39k can't receive a bonus this year
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to miss its lending target for this year. Photograph: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images
Royal Bank of Scotland warned today that it would not meet the lending targets it had been set by the government as it reported a third quarter loss of more than £2bn.
With bonus policies under scrutiny, the Edinburgh-based bank also revealed that staff costs in its investment banking arm had risen to £2.5bn, giving an indication of the size of the payouts bankers in this division can expect to receive.
As the bank is to be 84% owned by the taxpayer as a result of insuring £282bn of troublesome loans through the government's asset protection scheme (APS), RBS has agreed not to pay cash bonuses to anyone earning more than £39,000, raising speculation that key bankers in its investment banking division will leave. Any bonuses will be paid in shares or debt.
Stephen Hester, the chief executive whose own bonus is linked to achieving the lending targets, repeated today that the "journey" to recovery will "take some years". "It is a marathon not a sprint," he said.
