... Taxpayer cash used to boost bankers’ bonuses admitted Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester on Wednesday.This was because there was an ‘implicit’ guarantee that the lenders would be bailed out in a crisis, he told MPs .
Asked about the ‘implicit subsidy’, he said: ‘The subsidy could have fed through to lots of places – the price of loans, the general economy, employment in banks and bonuses. I assume there would have been some leakage to all the above.’
It emerged earlier this year that more than 100 RBS staff were paid more than £1million each last year – despite losses exceeding £1billion.
The bonus pot for its investment bankers fell to £950million compared with £1.3billion in 2009.
RBS is 83 per cent owned by the taxpayer after a £45billion bailout and nearly £2 trillion in various forms of financing from the public purse to rescue the whole of the financial sector.
