Darling rejects bankers' pay caps demands
Chancellor tells Treasury Select Committee it is essential that banks are 
able to retain key staff, despite row over bonuses.

The Chancellor today resisted calls to cap the pay of executives in the 
banks bailed out by the Government and said that Britain had already gone 
further than the United States in curbing bonuses in the banks.

Alistair Darling told the Treasury Select Committee it was essential that 
the banks were able to retain key staff if the Government was going to be 
able eventually to sell them back to the commercial sector.

"We have also got to make sure that we don't end up with a situation where 
other banks start attracting people who are key to making, say, RBS and the 
Lloyds Group work in the future," he said.

Mr Darling admitted that it would be "tough" to return nationalised and 
part-nationalised banks to the private sector. "I think we are going to have 
these banks for a while yet," he told the MPs. "It will take time to work 
through. There is no quick fix on this."

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http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5939224.ece