Too clever

It is going to take more than a few earnest announcements from politicians to stop bankers from sucking the cash out of failing banks. From today's Times...

Royal Bank of Scotland is offering immediate payments to staff who are owed bonuses despite promising the Government that it would not give them cash payouts.

The Times has learnt that RBS, which is 68 per cent owned by taxpayers after a £20 billion government bailout, is offering its staff loans against the bonuses that they are owed but which have been deferred until 2010 under a deal with the Government.

RBS had lobbied hard to be allowed to pay a cash element of the bonuses and critics will see the loan scheme as a way to get around the Government’s refusal to allow it to do so. The bank, which will pay out about £1 billion of bonuses, had agreed to defer about £650 million of that after intense political criticism.