While bank staff are cut in their thousands, there's no change for the fat cats and their obscene pay

...as Chris discovers from a top bank exec...

SOURCE GUARDIAN: Barclays and Lloyds sidestep EU rules and hand bosses almost £1m in shares
Bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays have handed their bosses almost £1m in shares to sidestep the new rules from Brussels which are intended to clampdown on bankers' pay. Similar handouts, which have become known in the City as "allowances", will be given to about 1,000 staff at Barclays and some 75 bankers at Lloyds. Barclays is facing outcry about its increased bonus payouts, which are being awarded despite a sharp fall in profits in 2013. At Barclays, however, more than half of the bank's total workforce of 140,000 earned less than £25,000.

SOURCE GUARDIAN: Loss-making RBS to give millions in shares to executivesRoyal Bank of Scotland is poised to release millions of pounds worth of shares to its top executive team through bonus schemes put in place by the loss-making bank over the last three years. The release of the shares share award will put a fresh focus on the pay policies of the 81% taxpayer-owned bank – where losses since the financial crisis have now surpassed the £45bn of taxpayer money used to prop up the bank.

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