City of London Bankers Complain Bonuses Not Enough Despite Topping Global League
City bonuses increased by almost a third in 2013 as workers in London's financial centre commanded the highest average payout of all bankers around the world.
According to recruitment site eFinancialCareers, which questioned 728 UK-based financial services professionals, the average bonus increased by 29% in when compared to 2012.
But a significant proportion (41%) of UK respondents declared that their bonus is still beneath their expectations.
"While the results of survey may seem surprising, a deeper look into the UK bonus trend finds that banks are dividing their bonus pool more ruthlessly, with a priority placed on rewarding top performers," said James Bennett, global managing director of eFinancialCareers.
"Banks argue that they need to pay large bonuses to keep their top talent. It would appear that a handful have been awarded handsome bonuses while the majority did not necessarily see a huge increase."

Barclays stoked the row over City pay on Tuesday by announcing a 32% fall in profits but a rise of 10% in the bonus pool for its 140,000 staff around the world.

Antony Jenkins, promoted to run Barclays in the wake of the £290m fine for rigging Libor, defended the decision to increase bonus payouts as he warned that between 10,000 to 12,000 jobs would be cut this year as he races to cut costs. Some 820 senior roles are to go along with 7,000 jobs in the UK.

In a move that sparked the fury of the TUC, which accused the bank of "sticking two fingers up to hard-pressed families across Britain", the bank announced it was paying bonuses of £2.4bn – up from £2.2bn a year ago – across the bank. Within that, the investment bankers enjoyed bonuses of £1.6bn compared with £1.4bn a year ago, even though the investment banking side suffered a loss in the fourth quarter and its annual profits tumbled 37%. The bank as a whole saw its profits fall to £5.2bn from £7bn.

The inequity in the numbers sparked a furious reaction from the Institute of Directors, where corporate governance director Roger Barker asked "for whom is this institution being run?" and called on shareholders to take a stand. "Their approach to the banks continues to be supine. We would like to see shareholders take a more aggressive role in the governance of the bank, and in light of Barclays' fragile reputational recovery we would urge the bank to ensure that the chairman of its remuneration committee remains an independent director," said Barker.

Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland has recorded pre-tax losses of £8.2 billion for 2013, as it revealed a a staff bonus pot of £576 million. The bonuses included £237 million for its investment bankers. RBS's losses were dramatically higher than those of 2012, when it recorded a £5.3 billion loss. That year it had a total bonus pot of £679 million. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said RBS was "in a different category" from other banks because it is largely taxpayer-owned and should show restraint on pay and bonuses.

Many bankers have been struggling to keep up their standard of living on salaries as high as £500,000-a-year due to their bonuses not increasing as quickly as they expected.
Richard Kingdon, an addiction counsellor based in the City of London, told the Huffington Post UK that the bankers would be struggling on £500,000-a-year as "they've got no common sense".
"People in the City are spending £50,000 on a weekend with prostitutes, gambling, and cocaine so why wouldn't they get into trouble? A lot of them have taken big hits because they've not got their bonuses. A lot of them are pissed off."
A head of HR at one British bank told efinancialcareers.com, speaking anonymously: “Our mid-ranking people are struggling. If you’re earning less than £500k, it’s very difficult to buy a house in central London and to pay school fees for several children."

Banks argue that they need to pay large bonuses to keep their top talent.

"they've got no common sense".