This is particularly the case in Barclays

I warn you, if I have the same bonus last year, I put the feet on the table and I read the newspaper. "In recent weeks, the bonus season began in the banks. And, as every year, the excitement is palpable in the market halls, rustle of rumours. "It would be down by 30." "In"global banking", they will be better paid than in"market"." "" It seems that the ads will be March 4. "Even the most senior bankers are looking for any information on the possible increase in the premium and the amount will they be announced in a few days. "You did nothing heard" do not hesitate to ask some of them journalists.

It is true that this year, the thriller took a distinctive flavor. "Last year, the teams included even the need to tighten their belts because of the support of the State, but, now, those who reported to their banks would have incentives to their performance," says a London financial. "But it is far more complicated than that."

As soon as the first ads fall - sequence started at Merrill Lynch this year-, the rumor starts again. "In the US, they were better paid than in Europe." "The junior had nothing." "My counterpart in Dubai hit twice more that me while it is void." The largest bonus A specialist in algorithmic trading in London, in a major bank. The cash "117 million." Dollars "No, euros." The real currency! "The value of the currency has its importance. It is known that were paid in dollars and who have lost 30 of their premium. An amount not representative however. For the vast majority of bankers, bonus does not exceed EUR 1 million.

And then, next to the stars, always well treated, there is "of the people who have zero", tells a traumatized vendor, in London. It must be said that revenue in market activities were not very good last year and that the 2011 prospects are uncertain. "Usually, they are always something, even if they want to leave people, explains a financial." This year, I know a VP or directors of five to ten years of experience, Editor's note who had nothing. It is rare. "Some, dissatisfied with their pay, have not come to the Office for two days in protest.

If the bonus season is special this year, as the "banker bashing", or "hatred of the banker", has become more intense, especially in Britain, because the crisis is now felt actually everywhere in the economy. "The time of remorse is gone", has just said Bob Diamond, the pattern of Barclays. A formula which is, at least, difficult past. In view of the political office of the subject, the bonus thus became totally taboo. At least in Europe. Because, if the United States appear to have given to legislate, the old Continent, he wants to give the example. Switzerland, the regulator imposed drastic constraints, leading its champion, Credit Switzerland, to submit even "small" wages to the deferred payment, the passing on 35 to 70 of compensation. Especially, the CRD3 directive, which applies to all the European Union on 1 January, hardens considerably the regulatory framework, even if it does not set a limit in absolute amounts. It introduces more than deferred and more shares in the premium, reducing the amount of cash collected the first year to only 20 or 30 of the total (see box). It applies, in addition, an increased population. "Whereas the regulation concerned previously only market professionals, it applies now to any person having a significant impact on the risk profile of the company", explains Olivier Dussarat, lawyer associate at Landwell & Associés. Moreover, new professions are captured by the new rule, as banks asset management subsidiaries.

Therefore, the European bankers deplore that their American counterparts are much better processed. "In some American banks, people affect 70 of their bonus in cash, and for"packages"to 7 digits, even in London, says a London market room pattern." In theory, should be submitted to the General rules of the City, but these are new and still surrounded by blur. "At the time, moving to New York becomes a tempting option. Asia is also dream, but it is another story: this time, it is a true expatriation with a radical life change.

Change is all the more brutal that new regulations had to be applied urgently, since it has been detailed in last December. "The banks had first risk mapping, to respect the principle of proportionality, which binds the pay of the employee to the risk associated with the profile of the institution and its function." "A trader whose limits are set at 5 million will be, for example, concerned not within a large Bank, but can be used in a small structure," explains Olivier Dussarat. "In fact, it almost choose hand who is concerned and which is not." A lace maker working in a few weeks on a population of hundreds of thousands of people in Europe, which are not less vindictive. Banks such as Deutsche Bank and UBS have even had to delay for a few days the announcement of the bonus.

The bankers themselves were taken by surprise. "Many people do not understand what happens to them," says one of them. They knew that the rules have changed, but they had been told that things would end better than expected. Until the end, banks thought they conciliation system. "Professionals including had anticipated the hardening of the rules on payment in cash. "Many of them are furious to have 25 of cash the first year", confirms the headhunting Eric Singer. Teams, the feeling of having lost compensation is, at the time, unhelpful, even if global envelopes not necessarily declined in absolute terms, since in many banks fixed salaries were raised from 30 to 40. "But the people still believe that their employer applies the stricter rules," said a lawyer.

In France, the decline in the share of cash nevertheless made some reckless bankers unable to pay their real estate in the Emergency Department. "Some of my employees must move", tells the boss of the City market Hall. Is also problematic in some cases of labour law. In France, by example, the malus ("clawbacks"), which are to resume a posteriori a portion of the bonus paid when the result is below expectations, are not allowed by law.

Curiously, the bankers don't appreciate also able to be paid in shares of Bank, they often regard as the currency of monkey. "Contrary to what we can imagine, many bankers who were paid in shares were not sold and saw their heritage to collapse in recent years," testified the head of an American Bank in Paris.

Last point, the regulators have hardened capital constraints and imposed on banks to pass on the bonus. They must therefore take into account equity and cash consumption activity upon which they depend. Thus, bonuses will be paid in "CoCos", these famous obligations automatically turn into capital to bail out the balance sheet of banks in case of difficulties. This is particularly the case in Barclays. The idea: that the losses are only borne by shareholders. In London, a banker from a U.S. institution summarized the situation just last month after having received a prestigious award of the "ifr" magazine for his team. "Of course, I must pay my team because it is often sought by the competition, he explained." But the people did not understand that the world had changed. For me, this has good sides, I hire less fixated professionals by their remuneration and more interested in their work. "Bankers should perhaps, indeed, to get used to that banks are structurally less generous than before. "I've heard some of them that they would lift the foot because their fixed salary had increased", explains this "hedge funder" London. "But the situation could rapidly remotivate them because the order of the day is not really to hiring, on the contrary."

Feeling under supervision of all sides, the bankers therefore turning their eyes to "hedge funds". They are not subject to the same rules and still generate many fantasies. As the story says, "dinners, bankers speak of their service car, fund managers speak of their helicopter. This close that, says Olivier Dussarat, "fund managers are often their own money." "Bankers willing to take such a risk does not represent the entire population".