Should These Bankers Get Their Bonuses ? Poll Results

At issue is around $65m of bonuses the bankers claim they should have received for their work in 2008.

The bankers claim that, in order to lock in key staff after the announcement in 2008 of Dresdner's sale to Commerzbank, Dresdner allocated a $524m guaranteed bonus pot to be paid out in early 2009. They say that former Dresdner Kleinwort CEO Stefan Jentzsch confirmed during a 'town hall' meeting in August 2008 that the pot of $524m was firm, although the allocation between bankers was discretionary.

In the event, the bankers claim only around 10% of the retention bonuses were paid out, and they want the rest of their money.

Commerzbank, which closed the deal for Dresdner in early 2009, says that the bonuses weren't due as Dresdner Kleinwort made huge losses in the final months of 2008, and that Commerzbank itself had to be bailed out by the German government partially as a result. Commerzbank said that it would be wrong to effectively use German taxpayer money to pay the bonuses.

So, we asked you whether you thought these bankers should get their bonuses.

Here's the poll results:

44.9% of respondents thought that Commerzbank is obliged to pay out the entire $524m, as these were retention payments and the bankers fulfilled their part of the bargain by staying in their jobs

42.2% said that they thought Commerzbank was right to revisit the 2008 bonus pool in the light of changing events

While 12.9% said they thought that the bankers have right on their side, but should have given up their bonus entitlements in view of the circumstances