Unions aghast as British bankers rake off billions in teeth of recession

<p>BRITISH banks have failed to tackle the rampant financial sector bonus culture that helped trigger the financial crisis, say unions and anti-poverty campaigners, who pointed to official figures showing that the sector grabbed bonuses last year worth £14 billion.<br /><br />Britain's Office for National Statistics said banks and insurance companies paid 40per cent of all bonuses despite employing only 4 per cent of the workforce.<br /><br />The general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Brendan Barber, said the Treasury's austerity message had failed to reach the City (Britain's financial sector). Mick McAteer, of the Financial Inclusion Centre, which campaigns for fairer access to finance, accused banks of ''getting back to business as usual'' after a series of huge bonus payments to bosses.<br /><br />But the Treasury, which is under pressure to keep City bonuses in check, pointed out payments were frozen in 2010-11 from the previous year at £14 billion and were down from £19 billion in 2007.</p><p> </p>

Unions aghast as British bankers rake off billions in teeth of recession

BRITISH banks have failed to tackle the rampant financial sector bonus culture that helped trigger the financial crisis, say unions and anti...

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