EXCLUSIVE: “Government should control banker pay” say business leaders

Our new research reveals the astonishing demand for state intervention in the private sector

The furious debate over bankers’ pay has exploded again as more than three quarters (78 per cent) of London business leaders declare that they believe the UK government should have a say over bankers’ bonuses if they work at taxpayer-bailed-out banks.

A quarter (26 per cent) of the 200 London business leaders polled go even further, calling for the government to regulate senior executives’ pay across all British banks, irrespective of the banks’ ownership, our exclusive new LondonlovesBusiness.com research in partnership with ComRes reveals today.

Nearly two thirds of respondents (61 per cent) feel that senior bankers are paid too much and something should be done to reduce their pay.

Our research comes just days after the news that investment banks globally have raised salaries by 37 per cent over the last four years, as discovered by a study from the Association for Financial Markets in Europe.

In our survey, when questioned on the financial difficulties experienced by Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, more than three quarters (79 per cent) of business leaders agree that it’s even more crucial these organisations attract the best talent to ensure they’re managed effectively.

It’s hardly surprising that the general business community feels bankers are paid too much, but it’s revelatory that such a huge chunk of the business community want to see government intervention in the private sector on this issue.

State meddling in the financial world comes with its own poison barbs though. It might appease London’s general business community, who are obviously perturbed by the amounts bankers are earning, but 40 per cent of those we questioned think that many senior bankers would simply move abroad to avoid any government restrictions on their pay.

As the furore steamrolls on over pay in the universally most lucrative sector in London, the precarious implications of any kind of state intervention in bankers’ pay remain dangerously ambiguous. Government action might calm the braying public, but it could also isolate and shrink the industry that provides almost one in every eight pounds in the public purse.