EU bank bonus cap harms London’s economy

London Mayor Boris Johnson has slammed European Union’s (EU) proposals to strict new caps on bankers’ bonuses, saying that the move could harm London’s economy.

Johnson warned that Brussels’s bank bonus cap will push banking business away from the City of London and towards Zurich, Singapore and New York.

“People will wonder why we stay in the EU if it persists in such transparently self-defeating policies,” Johnson said.

“Brussels cannot control the global market for banking talent. Brussels cannot set pay for bankers around the world.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron also raised concerns over the EU proposals, saying that the new rules must allow international banks to keep “competing and succeeding while being located in the UK”.

Britain’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) accused the government of taking the bankers’ side ahead of ordinary people who have been made to pay the price of bankers’ folly.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady also said, “For all their tough talk on bonuses, the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London are today standing up for the cosy pre-crash arrangements in the City, when bankers pocketed billions of pounds of undeserved bonuses and reckless decisions brought us to the brink of financial ruin.” – See more at: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/28/291307/eu-bank-bonus-cap-could-harm-london/#sthash.CVCIBRMe.dpuf