What's the point of undergoing all the hassle from politicians, taxpayers, union officials and all - just to go through the ritual of advising employees once a year that they are going to be given extra money ?
Isn't it a bit old-fashioned ? After all, bonuses were first introduced on Wall Street when firms were partnerships, and no-one cared how much partners (who were risking their own capital after all) paid their own staff. In fact, being partnerships, no-one outside the partners themselves (and probably the tax authorities) knew how much was being paid out anyway.
So, in these days when Wall Street mostly consists of publicly-quoted companies, bonuses in their existing form have probably had their day. At least that's what Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has been thinking.
The Financial Times reports that the bank is now considering dropping the idea of bonuses altogether for senior executives. Sir Philip Hampton, RBS's Chairman said: 'Clearly there's a challenge around the annual bonus, but if you switched that into long-term incentive plan or salary, you might start to address the issue. Something has to change. You have to make it more palatable'.
One compensation expert told Here Is The City: 'It's not just RBS that is looking at this. A number of firms are fed up of being treated as political footballs, but recognise that much of it is their own fault as they enable adversaries to focus in on a specific time period - bonus season - to spring their attacks. Several firms are now looking at ways at rewarding staff in a manner that won't involve an annual bonus payment - and not just for executives. The annual bonus, and bonus season as we currently know it, may soon be consigned to history'.
Our Highly Placed Professional adds: 'It would be a politically smart move to do away with the annual bonus round. And you can expect us bankers to come up with a structure that will deflect attention, be tax advantageous and still mean that we can all make out like bandits!'.
Finally, The Daily Mail reports that bankers now feel that London is the worst place to do business, in the wake of all the public outrage and political rhetoric on the subject of bonuses.
On banker told us: 'The UK is now a laughing stock. We simply can't survive without the tax revenues financial services bring in, and yet the politicians can't help but try to appeal to the mob with this senseless banker bonus bashing. Why would any global firm want to be a part of this ? London is in real danger of being marginalized as a financial centre'.
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