Osborne in Brussels to fight plans for bankers’ pay‏

5^th March 2013

Lucy EJ Woods

Lucy EJ Woods

5 March 2013

Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, visited the European Commission in Brussels today to argue against caps to bankers’ pay in the UK.

Osborne is reportedly facing the 27 EU representatives to stop new regulations, which could harm the UK’s financial sector.

A press release states the EU Commission “broadly endorsed the outcome” of the recent “package amending the EU’s rules on capital requirements for banks”.

The EU has proposed capping bankers bonuses to twice their salary, if shareholders allow.

The bloc parliament is still to decide “on outstanding technical issues, with the aim of reaching a final deal in the second half of March.”

The Commission has also said it will be “taking into account” the  “impact on competitiveness and financial stability” of the proposed regulations.

Osborne is to allegedly back the UK’s independent bank regulations, strategised in The Independent Commission on Banking (IBC), which states: “The Government is on track to have all legislation in place by the end of this Parliament (2015), and banks will be expected to have implemented reforms by 2019 at the latest.”

The European Union wants new bank regulations to be law by 1^st January 2014.

Osborne claimed in a speech to JP Morgan on 4^th February that the UK “now has the toughest and most transparent pay regime of any major financial centre in the world.”

He added that bank bonuses “fell by almost two thirds last year, and are less than a quarter of their peak before the crash.”

Osborne also said: “When we attract international firms to our country – firms that could go anywhere in the world to do their business – those firms bring jobs, and investment and prosperity…Britain should continue to aspire to be a home to the world’s financial services.”

Re-Define, an international economics Think Tank said on 25^th February: “The European parliament is right to limit the maximum bonus bankers can command as a proportion of base salary.

“This will help tackle the culture of excessive risk-taking and the bending of rules that has now become endemic to banking. Undertaking this at an EU-wide level will also limit any large-scale migration of the so-called ‘talent’.”

Lucy Woods