{"id":3200,"date":"2015-03-05T16:30:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T16:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3200"},"modified":"2015-03-06T15:09:03","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T15:09:03","slug":"end-casino-capitalism-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3200","title":{"rendered":"End casino capitalism call"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

As taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland announces further job cuts<\/a>, all while continuing to give its top brass millions in bonuses, the story reads much the same for another UK bank.<\/p>\n

 
\nOn Tuesday (March 3), Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays bank, graciously accepted a bonus that takes his total pay to \u00c2\u01415.5m, up from \u00c2\u01411.6m last year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even as he presides over a regime that will axe almost 20,000 jobs and close hundreds of branches up and down the country.<\/p>\n

 
\nTo add insult to injury, Barclays, much like RBS, has set aside hundreds of millions to pay out in fines after being embroiled in a rate-fixing scandal in 2012.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn response to his jaw-dropping bonus, the chief executive Jenkins said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI completely understand that I am very well remunerated for what I do.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI think it is appropriate that I accept my bonus.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nNo one thought to ask him, however, how \u00e2\u20ac\u015bappropriate\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 it is that more than 70,000 of the bank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s staff are paid \u00c2\u014125,000 or less, while a handful earns more than \u00c2\u01411m and five people earn more than \u00c2\u01415m.<\/p>\n

 
\nJenkins defended himself by pointing to the drop in the bonus pool to \u00c2\u01411.9bn, down almost a quarter from last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pool.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut even the bank itself admits that this fall in bonus payments can be partially attributed to separate allowances being handed out on top of salaries and bonuses \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a deliberate attempt to circumvent EU bonus caps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe news about Jenkins accepting his bonus comes as the Guardian reveals<\/a> the extent of Barclays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tax avoidance. In Luxembourg, the fat cats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 favourite tax haven, the bank generated \u00c2\u0141593m in profits, but employed only 30 people and paid just \u00c2\u01414m in tax.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner condemned the shameless way in which banks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bad behaviour continues despite their promises to reform year after year.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Steal candy, go to jail\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you steal candy from the shop, you can go to jail in this country,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut if you fleece billions from innocent people, while rewarding already overpaid suits and ties for what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s essentially criminal behaviour, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re slapped with a negligible fine and all is forgotten.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe only way casino capitalism will stop is if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made to,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe banks will not get their house in order on their own. We need tougher banking regulation that has teeth.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nLabour has put forward specific banking reforms, some of which were outlined by shadow minister Cathy Jamieson during last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s PMQs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBonuses should be a reward for exceptional performance and not a compensation for failure,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bDespite the scandals that have emerged over the past year, most recently HSBC, it looks like this year it looks like this round of bank bonuses will once again be very generous.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPay must be more closely aligned with long term performance so a Labour government will embark on a serious and far reaching programme of reform in the banking sector,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe will reintroduce our successful tax on bankers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bonuses which generated over \u00c2\u01413bn in 2010. We will act to ensure this tax incorporates any attempts made by banks in an attempt to circumvent the EU bonus cap.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nMeanwhile \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even as story after story emerges of banks continuing to operate in much the same way they did prior to the financial crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Cameron and the Tories have remained tellingly silent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland announces further job cuts, all while continuing to give its top brass millions in bonuses, the story reads much the same for another UK bank.   On Tuesday (March 3), Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclays bank, graciously accepted a bonus that takes his total pay to \u00c2\u01415.5m, up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[32],"wps_subtitle":"Unite wants tougher regulation as bank fat cats fleece public ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3202,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200\/revisions\/3202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}