Search: Darling RBS bonuses
Chancellor Alistair Darling has announced a review of bank practices amid condemnation of a reported £1 billion bonuses package planned by a bank being propped up by £20 billion of public money.
He warned bosses they should not reward "excessive risk-taking" as he launched the wide-ranging inquiry and said banks had to recognise their duty to the public.
Mr Darling unveiled the inquiry as it was reported that Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was in talks over the massive bonuses package with the body set up to manage the taxpayers' stake in the bailed-out banks.
The claims over the scale of the payouts, in the Sunday Telegraph, came just days after Gordon Brown warned RBS there should be "no rewards for failure" amid mounting anger over banks' behaviour.
RBS chiefs were said to be aiming to stem outrage by limiting the cash element being paid to each employee to £25,000 - with the rest made up in shares in the bank.
Most of the share options would be deferred or withheld if the employee left within a set period or if their part of the bank made "significant" losses in the next two years, the paper said.
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About half of the total would be "discretionary" payments with the rest being money RBS is "contractually" obliged to give to employees of ABN Amro, the Dutch bank bought by RBS.
The total payout would be about 60% lower than last year's.
RBS, now 68%-owned by the Government, is due to report its 2008 results in three weeks, when it will confirm a loss of several billion pounds.
A spokeswoman said that the board was "yet to make a decision on remuneration policy for the year".
