Confused?

[portzy]

Am I missing something here? I thought this type behaviour caused most of the problems in the first place and is this not the bank who has the dubious honour of leading the homes re-posession league.

If I pay my motgage back and other bills on time I dont get a reward or is it just me?

Portzy.

 

[Gollom]

Hmmmmm - whilst I don't begrudge people a bonus, that would be our tax money then?

 

[portzy]

Hmmmmm - whilst I don't begrudge people a bonus, that would be our tax money then?

I cant see how it can be anything other. At the risk of going political, I would have thought HMG sould have had the forsight to write a few caveats into the loan agreement that they gave Northern Rock. What will all the reposessed family home owners and fore-closed small business's make of it I dont know.

Portzy.

 

[kikkthecat]

Come on David, pay attention at the back.
White is the new black and debts are the new assets You cant think anyone who may be even remotely responsible for any of the current world mess is going to walk away with anything other than a bonus and a shrug of the shoulders.

Just pay up like the rest of us.

 

[IanA2]

HMG .... foresight

Don't often see that in one sentence..........without "lack of..."

 

[Benzowner]

I think you have missed the point altogether. The satff will be paid bonuses for paying the government loan back early. Reposession of houses will not pay that loan, forcing the owners to remortgage with another BS will, and that, I beleive, is the goal. Northern Roack has an awful lot of very low fixed rate mortgages out and they are now trying to "loose" them via the remortgage route. Paying bonuses to a "nationalised" company is not new, I worked for the electricity board many years ago and was paid bonuses and overtime and that was when they were nationalised.

 

[crockers]

Sorry - if they meet a target and we get our money repaid on time and they move back into the private sector - the bonus hasn't cost us a penny. It wont be an easy target to reach.

Or do people think the nation should keep the bank and therefore all profits come to the treasury..?

 

[Stratman]

The best explanation of how money works is Terry Pratchett's 'Making Money', one of the Discworld books.

Read it and learn.

 

[portzy]

The financial technicalities may be lost on me and 99% of the population also but, if the bonuses are to be paid post re-privatisation and via new business,(albeit at higher interest rates), then, up to a point, all well and good.

A "perception" though, speaks louder than words and I dont feel confident that the above will be the case. I used to work for a nationlised company that went private, Brtish Gas in fact and yes, we got the occasional bonus or rather ex gratia but it was for duties over and above etc. We were never paid extra for anything that was deemed to be part of our job and we were never bailed out in any way.

Is it not the "bonus" culture that started much of all this and still, after all that has been said and done, the "bonus" culture is the first fix that these people come up with.

How about......

"Its a loan, the deal is that you pay it back and if you do it early then we might knock off a bit of interest that you owe us and in doing so you get to keep your jobs".

Portzy

 

[Colin_b]

The financial technicalities may be lost on me and 99% of the population also but, if the bonuses are to be paid post re-privatisation and via new business,(albeit at higher interest rates), then, up to a point, all well and good.

A "perception" though, speaks louder than words and I dont feel confident that the above will be the case. I used to work for a nationlised company that went private, Brtish Gas in fact and yes, we got the occasional bonus or rather ex gratia but it was for duties over and above etc. We were never paid extra for anything that was deemed to be part of our job and we were never bailed out in any way.

Is it not the "bonus" culture that started much of all this and still, after all that has been said and done, the "bonus" culture is the first fix that these people come up with.

How about......

"Its a loan, the deal is that you pay it back and if you do it early then we might knock off a bit of interest that you owe us and in doing so you get to keep your jobs".

Portzy

The problem was management. They forgot the basic rules of running a bank, and got greedy and short term. The problem was compounded by inadequate regulation and foolish customers.

This particular bonus depends on NR giving us our money back as quickly as reasonably possible. I would hope this would be cheaper than having the debt run on (at least, I hope it would!).

They will do this by getting all the mortgages they have either repaid or moved to another lender. This will be very, very difficult, given the shortage of loan money available. Thus I wouldn't plan on getting any bonus if I were a NR employee.....

 

[Stratman]

I still don't get why employees on an already sizeable salary expect huge bonuses for shifting other people's money from one side of the desk to the other. Somebody please explain.

 

[timskemp]

Simply because they have stuck with an ailing company and not jumped ship and gone elsewhere. A lot of the so-called "sub prime" (I hate the phrase, I have that kind of mortgage at the moment) mortgages consist of large blocks of buy to let, which are risky but asset backed, and large loan to income self-certs (like mine) for self employed and business owners etc who can't show a standard income. Again on paper a high risk but generally repaid.

If you're a mortgage salesperson / account manager at a company with lots of this kind of lending then you could go elsewhere and take a more secure job, or stick it out at the existing one. In the latter case you'd expect some incentive in the form of bonuses or other benefits.

Human capital is just that in many industries, transferable between competitors for a price. If it were your own livelihood would you continue to work for a company that's in financial trouble unless there's an incentive that balances out the risk?

 

[Colin_b]

I still don't get why employees on an already sizeable salary expect huge bonuses for shifting other people's money from one side of the desk to the other. Somebody please explain.

Economics, basically. If the bonus is payed, it will mean NR no longer owes HMG (us) money, and NR can be closed down. Thus HMG has more money for propping up the other banks.

The possibility of a bonus is designed to focus employees on this objective and make them reluctant to leave until the job is done. A bit like a sales person getting comission - its only paid if the job is done.

Bear in mind the majority of NR staff are not on 'sizeable salaries' - the people who work behind counters and the like.

 

[peterg1965]

Here is my view......
There should be a wage cap in the public sector, no one should earn anymore than the Prime Minister (about £180K) as the 'senior public servant'. That should include CEO of NHS Trusts, Councils, Quangos, Judges, Chairman of the BBC, etc etc

That should be the price to pay for job security and gold plated pensions. It is offensive to see tax payers money being wasted in giving out huge wages and bonuses to senior execs who frankly do not deserve it.

For the record, I am not a left wing sandal wearer, in fact I was once a card carrying Tory, and I actually work in the Public sector.