Scandals cost bankers £900m in bonus payments

Lloyds Banking Group clawed back almost £2 million from executives after it was hit by multibillion-pound costs from the PPI scandal
Lloyds Banking Group clawed back almost £2 million from executives after it was hit by multibillion-pound costs from the PPI scandal
LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES

Bankers caught up in scandals that have engulfed Britain’s biggest lenders have handed back almost £900 million of bonuses over the past four years, in a sign that the City’s tough new remuneration regime is working.

Under the new pay code, as much as 60 per cent of a banker’s annual bonus is deferred for seven years and can be withdrawn using a “malus” if they are involved in misconduct.

Since the scheme was introduced in 2011, Britain’s five big lenders have taken back £844 million of unvested bonuses, according to figures from the Bank of England. There was a marked increase in malus repayments last year in the wake of the foreign exchange and Libor-rigging scandals, when the banks reclaimed £290 million from their