Europe's financial services commissioner warned today that he may 'go further' in regulating bankers' bonuses, after saying an appeal for humility was ignored.
'The bonus season is coming to a close, I don't get the feeling that my appeal for moderation has been heard,' France's Michel Barnier said after talks among European Union finance ministers that made little headway on proposed curbs on contentious short-selling and credit default swap markets.
'The crisis seems well behind a certain number of people with short memories, particularly in the banks,' he added.
Multi-million-dollar bank bonuses became an early symbol of public anger when a financial crisis broke in 2008 as a pyramid of debt speculation, much of it on property, burst in the US.
Figures such as the former head of bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland, Fred Goodwin, saw his Edinburgh home attacked and his reputation pilloried as public and media pinned blame on the banking industry for the crisis.
Barnier vowed today to stay on the bankers' backs after bonuses already labelled 'scandalous' by International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
'We are going to look very carefully at how the first rules for bonus awards in Europe have been implemented, and if they haven't been followed, propose going further,' Barnier said.
He added he would also check whether G20 recommendations underpinning EU regulations had been followed, when he visits China later this week.
