Banker Bonuses Face Toughest Curbs in EU Basel Law Deal
By Jim Brunsden
Bankers in the European Union, who already have the toughest bonus curbs in the Group of 20 nations, may face even stricter pay limits under a draft deal to bolster lenders’ capital requirements and rewrite the bloc’s financial industry rulebook. European Parliament lawmakers and national government officials agreed to ban bonuses that are more than twice bankers’ fixed pay, in a tentative deal that may end more than 18 months of wrangling over how the EU will apply global bank rules drawn up by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. “The EU is taking the toughest approach of any major market to date on banker pay,” Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner of Washington-based Federal Financial Analytics Inc., said in an e-mail. “Banks may be getting a lot of regulatory leeway, but bankers will pay for it in their compensation packets,” she said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-28/banker-bonuses-face-world-s-toughest-curbs-in-eu-basel-law-deal.html