Myners and Walker clash over City pay
A ROW was brewing last night after City Minister Lord Myners claimed 5,000 bankers will earn more than £1m this year.
The figure is five times the estimate given by Sir David Walker, the man tasked by the government to review bankers’ pay, leaving the pair on a collision course.
Myners, speaking in the House of Lords yesterday, said: “I would estimate that at least 5,000 people working in the banking industry in the UK will receive, if nothing is done, remuneration in excess of £1m this year.
“I think the real responsibility here must lie with the shareholders. Accordingly I have written to the National Association of Pension Funds, the CBI and the TUC urging them to use their influence to persuade trustees to ask their fund mangers: ‘What are you doing to stop these quite unreasonable and unjustified levels of remuneration?’”
Sir Walker, author of the government-commissioned Walker Review into remuneration and corporate governance, said last week that banks should be forced to disclose how many of their staff were paid over £1m.
His own estimate of the number of people affected was 1,000, and came after close scrutiny of the banking sector.
If Myners’ calculations are correct, at least £5bn will be shared by 5,000 workers.