France, Britain differ on bankers' bonuses

LONDON, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Britain and France disagree on how to limit big bonuses for bankers, which both countries hold partially responsible for the financial crisis, analysts say.

Finance ministers were meeting in London Saturday in a preparatory session for this month's Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, where a top agenda item will be huge bonuses given to investment bankers, the BBC reported.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown opened the meeting saying: "Pay and bonuses cannot reward failure or encourage unacceptable risk-taking," The Times of London reported.

"It is offensive to the general public, whose taxpayers' money in different ways has helped many banks from collapsing and is now underpinning their recovery, Brown said."

But how to do so is a sticking point. French French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde favors setting mandatory caps on such bonuses and has promised to launch an "onslaught" against large payouts. She is reportedly backed by the head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker.

But British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling opposes the idea, and will propose such bonus payments be paid out over five years and only in the form of stock options, the BBC said.