It has the mainstream media railing against its apparent excesses and has little or no support from politicians. The bonus culture, if not yet dead, looks at least half-buried. The industry has to come up with a ‘fair’ – and, importantly, seen to be fair – scheme to reward market participants.
The ruminations of my old mucker got me thinking. Ostensibly, I took a huge pay cut to join Midland Bank as a junior trader back in 1985. However, my salary was boosted by a subsidised mortgage and, more importantly, by overtime. And that’s my answer for the industry.
FX traders, at least in the EU, waive their rights to working a 35-hour week. They should tear those waivers up. As most of them invariably do 11-hours days, they will accrue around 20-hours of overtime a week. I’m sure the UK government will agree that these workers should be rewarded for their long labours; the most acceptable way would be to reintroduce overtime.
I can’t see any problem with paying out on the basis of triple time and perhaps more for weekends and bank holidays. That would instantly increase traders’ remuneration by around 150%.