Easy money from the taxpayer

The BBC is reporting that RBS’s chief executive, Stephen Hester, is likely to receive a pay package of £9.6m providing certain performance benchmarks are achieved:

Mr Hester would only get the maximum remuneration if the share price were to hit 70p, which would give the taxpayer a profit of £8bn.

Mr Hester would only get the maximum remuneration if the share price were to hit 70p, which would give the taxpayer a profit of £8bn.

Lending more money would be risky and might not be compatible with big growth in the RBS share price.

In other words, a higher share price is more beneficial to Hester than lending to the customers, the good old British taxpayer.

And don’t forget, in April, RBS announced 9,000 job cuts, having made a loss of £24.1bn in 2008 - the largest loss in UK corporate history.

It must be a good day to bury bad news!