Thursday, February 12, 2009

Has the FSA Rewarded Failure?

A man in the Question Time audience just asserted that the FSA have paid a £10 million bonus to its staff today. Surely, to God, that isn't true. Does anyone know?

16 comments:

The Grim Reaper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Grim Reaper said...

First attempt was deleted, hadn't worded it properly. Let's try this again. It's true - well, sort of. Read this and decide for yourself.

According to Times Online: "The FSA is increasing staff bonuses from a maximum of 12.5 per cent of pay to 15 per cent, which would require it to pay out up to £23 million. It is also earmarking an extra £10 million to give pay rises to people whose pay was 'out of kilter' with market rates."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5721366.ece

KP said...

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5721401.ece

seems so... times tomorrow

I think Justine Greenings is this weeks Will Young. Pretty woeful

3 "at the end of the days" already

crimeficreader said...

Try this:
http://business.timesonline
.co.uk/tol/business/industr
y_sectors/
banking_and_finance/
article5721401.ece

And this:
http://business.timesonline
.co.uk/tol/business/columnists
/article5721441.ece

crimeficreader said...

This one's also interesting. They want to increase their fees:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/
0/e5cc38f0-f923-11dd-ab7f
-000077b07658.html

Anonymous said...

Is Mony Donn trying to sound as big a tit as possible? He's getting close to Davina McCall for being the most vacant person to appear on the programe.

Bill Quango MP said...

Davina McCall still wins though scan. She was as vacant as a Woolworths landlords property portfolio.

Gareth said...

I think you misunderstand Iain. The FSA haven't failed. Gordon Brown didn't fail as Chancellor. These Banksters didn't fail.

As Chancellor Brown keeps smirking, A big boy did it and ran away.


These rewards for failure perhaps ought to be looked at in a different light.

They're all getting them. FSA, HMRC, bonuses are an expected perk in public sector management jobs now (so why aren't they simply 'wages'?). Plus you've got the formerly successful banksters still believing that They're Worth It.

The idea that there was any incentive for them to get things right is clearly now nonsense. They were, will and have got bonuses despite some massive cockups. The conclusion that I draw from this is that they themselves, each individual, studiously avoiding taking any responsibility for the obvious problems we face, must therefore be surplus to requirements. They have had plenty of juicy carrots from us. The incentive now should be wielding a very large stick. Starting with the Top Man.

There have been calls for banksters to give back their bonuses. Brown gets one of his hypocritical harpees to suggest they may look at the issues of bankster bonuses. You first matey. You cannot spend a decade claiming economic genius and then when it's proven to be a sham blame someone else. Anyone else. Everyone else. You cannot then claim you said we were doomed 10 years ago but decided to sit on your hands and do nothing. You've stopped crowing about successive quarters of growth haven't you Mr. Brown. Where's your blustering '15% interest rates under the Tories' battlecry gone? Hand back all your wages from the last 11 years son. You've not been worth it. Step away from the despatch box. Remove your fat, clammy digits from the nuclear button. Give up your supremely cushy pension. Forgo your Police protection as Mo Mowlam was forced to do.

If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.

cassandra said...

Brown needs scapegoats and lots of them, his old scapegoats are looking quite tired so lets help him to line them up?
Someone has to take the blame, little green men, Tories, Yanks, its all good!
If Brown were to be cornered with no scapegoats to blame then his whole psuedo reality/ fantasy island delusion would desolve and a mental breakdown would follow, so come on folks start coming up with ideas for new and improved scapegoats and whipping boys, itll help not only your leader but you will also be helping to prevent a mental defective suffer a major breakdown, its all good eh?

Blaad said...

Liam Byrne was a revelation.

Absolutely no idea whenever questioned and was clearly, um, you know, educated in the Blair school of spin.

Dimbleby had him by the short n curlies over the Dutch MP question and then just moved on and let him off the hook - remarkable.

Our Sub Prime Minister will never admit to making any mistakes. Pointless, now, expecting him to.

Unsworth said...

Short answer: Yes it certainly has.

Lola said...

Worse than the bonus payments to their staff the FSA are now setting out to massively increase their budget by upping the fees to all the firms they regularte. Classic, isn't it? Fail and raise your prices to compensate - they must be taking a lesson from bankers.

In any veent their fees are justa trading tax. Regulated firms will just increase their prices or sack some employees in order to comepnsate.

One other point that is really irking me is the lie that the FSA operated a 'light touch' regulatory system. The FSMA 2000 established the most prescriptive and controlling FS regulatory system ever. It is de facto nationalisation by regulation. It is this construct that has failed, not the banks or FS in general.

Victor, NW Kent said...

Isn't it normal to reward failure in finance and in the civil service?
That must be so since the FSA is perhaps the biggest failure of all government departments.

Anonymous said...

We managed without an FSA before 1997 - we can probably manage without one again.

Its not as if they have been any use since their inception, is it?

Their only task has been to regulate the banking industry and the biggest banking crash in history unfolds before their very own disbelieving eyes.

Lola said...

You really couldn't make it up, part one:-

"Executives and staff of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the chief City regulator, are in line for up to £33 million of bonuses and pay top-ups this year, The Times reports.
The FSA, which has been severely criticised for not doing enough to anticipate the banking crisis, said that it needed to introduce a new reward strategy to improve the performance of its 2,800 employees.
Plans for potentially bigger bonuses and a new pay top-up scheme — described by the FSA as “a talent management initiative” — come just 24 hours after Sir James Crosby, its deputy chairman, resigned amid allegations that when he ran HBOS he sacked a senior whistleblower who was worried that the bank took excessive risks.
The FSA is raising staff bonuses from a maximum of 12.5 per cent of pay to 15percent, which would require it to pay out up to £23 million this year. It is also earmarking an extra £10 million to give pay rises to staff whose pay was “out of kilter” with market rates. The plans for higher pay were revealed as the FSA announced proposals for a £117 million increase in its budget to improve regulation and bank supervision. Bonuses for the top three FSA officials, including Hector Sants, the chief executive, are to be decided next month by the FSA board remuneration committee."

Be ver very clear about the FSA. It is a failed concept and it is out of control. CLOSE IT DOWN

Anonymous said...

Liam Byrne was shown to be absolutely useless last night, unfortunately followed very closely by Justine Greening.
It's time the stopped the so-called "celebrities" appearing, they have nothing to add to a programme that's going downhill rapidly.