Assembly Member Mick Bates has criticised the ‘unacceptable face of banking’ following the news that despite a £45billion taxpayer bailout, after slashing service hours in branches across Montgomeryshire in 2010 and being penalised for its handling of complaints, the Royal Bank of Scotland will be rewarding its Chief Executive Stephen Hester with a £2.5million bonus.
The Royal Bank of Scotland has received a £2.8million penalty for “multiple failures” in its handling of complaints. Despite this, Chief Executive Stephen Hester will be paid almost £7 million this year including a £2.5million performance related bonus.
Commenting, Mr Bates said:
“It is appalling that a bank, which was bailed out by the taxpayer and has been fined so heavily for its very poor handling of complaints, is awarding its top rank such huge bonuses.
“Eighty-four per cent of RBS is owned by the Government after a £45billion taxpayer bailout. Despite this, in 2010 we saw the service to taxpayers in Montgomeryshire hit by cuts to opening hours in branches across the county.
“This is the unacceptable face of banking, that after being propped up with huge sums of taxpayers’ money, banks are failing to lend to individuals and businesses and failing to improve services to customers.
“Mr Hester’s bonus of £2.5 million is just a fraction of the £950 million bonuses that RBS is expected to hand out to its senior staff. This is a massive amount of money which should be invested in improving and expanding services to customers and supporting economic recovery in our communities, not lining the pockets of the banking top brass.”
Mick Bates will be meeting again with local community representatives in January to discuss the next steps to be taken by the banking action group to protect services in Montgomeryshire.
