{"id":6233,"date":"2010-02-26T11:24:37","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T09:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=6233"},"modified":"2010-02-26T11:24:37","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T09:24:37","slug":"letters-we-need-wholesale-reform-of-the-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2010\/02\/26\/letters-we-need-wholesale-reform-of-the-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters: We need wholesale reform of the banks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letters: We need wholesale reform of the banks | \t\t\t\tBusiness | \t\t\t\tThe Guardian <\/a>.<\/p>\n

From this morning's Guardian:<\/p>\n

As Jill Treanor reports (Anger escalates over Royal Bank of Scotland p<\/a>lan to pay \u00a31.3bn bonuses<\/a>, 25 February), this week's announcement by the 84% tax-payer-owned bank will be unpalatable to the vast majority of British citizens. The very same institutions that left Britain and the world economy tilting on the edge of collapse have benefited the most from state action. Despite this, they are once again cashing in unjust and unearned rewards. In light of this, it's right that we demand \"never again\": we cannot afford to turn back to the way our banks were run before the crash. We now need wholesale reform.<\/p>\n

We therefore call on the government to instigate a package of regulations and reforms that would amount to a new banking settlement, in order to bring financial services more in line with the social and economic needs of the people. In the short term, we should look at capping remuneration (set as a percentage of net revenue), this would help tackle flagrant high pay, shore up bank balance sheets and provide a level playing field across the banking sector. RBS and Lloyds would then no longer be a \"prisoner to the market\". We should also repeat the bankers' bonus windfall tax<\/a>, and extend it to hedge funds<\/a> and private equity<\/a> houses, the riskiest and shadiest financial operators.<\/p>\n

In the medium to long term, we must harness the wealth of the financial sector for socially useful means with a transactions tax<\/a>. We should also have a new Glass-Steagall Act<\/a> to separate retail and investment banking. Finally we should now establish a high pay commission<\/a>. If introduced in the right way, these reforms would significantly transfer risk from the state and taxpayers back on to financial institutions, while at the same time fundamentally change banks behaviour and change the culture of the City. The government must have the conviction to ensure that never again will the short-term financial interests of the finance sector come before the needs of the wider economy and society.<\/p>\n

Andrew Simms, Policy Director, nef<\/p>\n

Ann Pettifor, author, The Coming First World Debt Crisis<\/p>\n

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC<\/p>\n

Billy Hayes, General Secretary, CWU<\/p>\n

Chris Edwards, Senior Fellow, Economics, University of East Anglia, UK<\/p>\n

Dave Prentis, General Secretary, UNISON<\/p>\n

Dennis Leech, Professor of Economics, Warwick University, UK<\/p>\n

Dr Martin Parker, Universityof LeicesterSchoolof Management<\/p>\n

Dr Sally Ruane, DemountfordUniversity<\/p>\n

Gavin Hayes, General Secretary, Compass<\/p>\n

Geoffrey Hodgson, Research Professor of Business Studies, University of Hertfordshire, UK<\/p>\n

Guy Palmer, Director, The Poverty Site<\/p>\n

Howard Reed<\/p>\n

Lindsay Hoyle MP<\/p>\n

Neal Lawson, Chair, Compass<\/p>\n

Nick Isles<\/p>\n

Paddy Tipping MP<\/p>\n

Prof Dave Byrne, DurhamUniversity<\/p>\n

Prof George Irvin, SOASUniversity<\/p>\n

Prof Gregor Gall, Universityof Hertfordshire<\/p>\n

Prof Hugh Willmott, CardiffBusinessSchool<\/p>\n

Prof Karel Williams, ManchesterBusinessSchool<\/p>\n

Prof Malcolm Sawyer, LeedsUniversityBusinessSchool<\/p>\n

Prof Martin Parkker, Schoolof Management,. Universityof Leicester<\/p>\n

Prof Peter Case, BristolBusinessSchool<\/p>\n

Prof Prem Sikka, EssexBusinessSchool<\/p>\n

Prof Stefano Harney, Schoolof Business& Management, QMUL<\/p>\n

Prof Tim Jackson, SurreyUniversity<\/p>\n

Richard Murphy, Tax Justice Network UK<\/p>\n

Rt Hon John Battle MP<\/p>\n

Stewart Lansley, author, Rich Britain: The Rise and Rise of the New Super-Wealthy<\/p>\n

Sunny Hundal, Liberal Conspiracy<\/p>\n

Tony Lloyd MP<\/p>\n

Victoria Chick, Emeritus Professor of Economics, UniversityCollegeLondon, UK<\/p>\n

Will Straw, Liberal Conspiracy<\/p>\n

Ismail Erturk, ManchesterBusinessSchool<\/p>\n

Ann Clwyd MP<\/p>\n

Dai Davies MP<\/p>\n

Derek Wyatt MP<\/p>\n

Frank Field MP<\/p>\n

John Austin MP<\/p>\n

Mark Durkan MP<\/p>\n

Mark Lazarowicz MP<\/p>\n

Michael Clapham MP<\/p>\n

Michael Meacher MP<\/p>\n

Paul Holmes MP<\/p>\n

Sam Tarry, Chair, Young Labour<\/p>\n

Prof Christine Cooper, Universityof Strathclyde<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letters: We need wholesale reform of the banks | Business | The Guardian . From this morning’s Guardian: As Jill Treanor reports (Anger escalates over
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-banking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}