Clegg: Sack bank executives

Clegg: Sack bank executives

Thursday, 09, Oct 2008 05:43

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has urged the prime minister to remove the senior banking executives involved in the risk taking which triggered the current crisis.

"Now the taxpayer has bailed out the banks, those senior executives who took excessive risks leading to this crisis shouldn't be let off the hook," Mr Clegg said.

In a letter to Gordon Brown today, Mr Clegg proposed that board members of banks should be barred from taking bonuses, to stop them following distorted short-term business models.

The letter also calls for new measures to be introduced for all banks on the structure of executive pay, qualified new directors to be appointed to the boards of all banks the government takes a stake in and a condition put on the rescue package stipulating that banks only repossess homes as a last resort.

"The government's rescue package must be used as a starting point to reform the way banks operate to ensure this crisis is never repeated," Mr Clegg added.