Banker Bob's £63 Million Jackpot: Anger and Disgust as Scale of City Fat-Cat Culture Hits New Record

One of Britain's richest bankers has landed a record pay package of £63.3million. The extraordinary deal for Barclays president Bob Diamond sparked a major new row over payouts to banking fat cats. The sheer size of his salary, perks and shares package flies in the face of assurances that Barclays and other banks have adopted a culture of restraint.

MPs reacted with disgust, with one saying the behaviour of bankers had gone beyond all 'comprehension and decency.'(Pot calling kettle black)
The news suggests the banking sector is still in denial about its culture of excess, even after nearly £1trillion of taxpayer funding was committed to supporting it. Unlike Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds, Barclays has not taken direct injections of cash from the Treasury. But it has benefited from Bank of England guarantees and support for firms' finances.'

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Barclays Investment Bankers in Line For 150% Pay Rises to Ease Bonus Tax Pain

Bankers at Barclays are being given massive pay rises to compensate for the 50 per cent bonus tax. Up to 23,000 investment bankers have been awarded rises of as much as 150 per cent - apparently planned before the bonus tax was announced in Alastair Darling's Pre-Budget report.'

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Report Slams Bank Links to Clusterbomb Production

Leading banks have funded arms manufacturers, whose products include cluster bombs, to the tune of $5 billion in the past two years, despite an international accord to ban such weapons, a study said Thursday.

The report by Profundo consultancy and several NGOs said the banks loaned money to companies whose products include cluster bombs or their components.

It did not say the funds went directly to make cluster bombs. The manufacturers could use the money for any of their production lines.

The top five loan providers were Bank of America, Citigroup , JP Morgan, Barclays and Goldman Sachs, the study said.'

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Barclays Bank Gags Guardian Newspaper Over Tax Avoidance Memos

Barclays Bank obtained a court order early today banning the Guardian from publishing documents which showed how the bank set up companies to avoid hundreds of millions of pounds in tax.

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Fortunately the memos can be found here...

Barclays Faces Paris Money Laundering Trial

Societe Generale, the French unit of Barclays and two other banks are to face trial in Paris on charges that they abetted a money laundering operation between France and Israel, judicial officials said yesterday.
About 100 individuals, including the chief executive of Societe Generale, Daniel Bouton, and other senior bank executives have been charged in the case. No date for the trial was announced.
French financial police have been probing the alleged scheme - known as the Sentier II case for the garment district in Paris where many of the transactions originated - since 1997. The case is being watched as a test of banks' accountability for money-laundering offences committed by employees.
Societe Generale is accused of having laundered some 32 million euros, Barclays France close to 24 million euros, National Bank of Pakistan 2.5 million euros and Societe Marseillaise de Credit about 2.7 million euros, the court officials said.

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Top Tory William Hague Flew Off On Barclays £500,000 Italian Jolly As Markets Crashed

William Hague is facing awkward questions about his judgment after he joined a lavish Italian trip for Barclays executives on a black day for global markets.
He spent Friday on the sunny shores of Lake Como, on the final day of a luxury break organised by the hard-pressed bank's private wealth division.
While he enjoyed the balmy surroundings of one of Europe's most expensive hotels, where rooms can cost £1,000 a night, markets in London and America went into freefall.

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This just shows how not just labour but the tory's are complicit in this whole prearranged meltdown of our economy and our lives. They don't give a shit about you and this just proves it.

Fatcat Barclays Bankers Jet Off To Italy For Lavish £500,000 Banquet As Country Faces Up To Financial Crisis

While the rest of the country struggles to come to terms with the financial crisis, a group of Barclays bankers have jetted off for a lavish banquet costing more than £500,000.
As British taxpayers faced up to a grim financial future, coupled with the fear of tax hikes following the government's bailout £500billion bailout package, a group of fatcat bosses from Barclays Wealth flew out to the luxurious Villa Erba, beside Lake Como in Italy yesterday for the all-expenses paid jaunt.
Invites alone for the bash are believed to have cost up to £3,000.
Over 300 guests will be wined, dined and entertained with an evening of opera before spending the night in the luxury surroundings of the exclusive Villa D'Este hotel.

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Now DO You See How They Are Taking The Piss Out of YOU!