Home > Opinion > Hal Austin
Best and brightest
Here is an idea. You are familiar with the talk about fat-cat bankers and the huge salaries and benefits they enjoy, and the counter-argument that if we in Britain want to attract the best and brightest we have to be competitive with the US.
Since few Brits are chief executives in the US, it would suggest that even if salaries are competitive with the US, we are either managing to hold on to our brightest and best, or there is no real demand for them.
Or, look at it another way. How about reducing the salary packages of some of these bankers substantially, like Stephen Hester’s £9.6m to £1.6m, on a take it or leave it basis?
Would RBS still attract some of the brightest and best of their generation to express an interest in the job? And, could they do just as good a job?
Answers please on a postage stamp.
