RBS: A £1m bonus is a bargain for a star CEO

There were lots of stupid reasons why RBS boss Stephen Hestor shouldn't get his £1m bonus, says Matthew Lynn. But there was one very good one: he's not doing a very good job.

There were lots of bad reasons for objecting to the million pound bonus that was going to be paid to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) chief executive, Stephen Hester.

Bonuses for bankers are hardly wicked in themselves, and by industry standards his was relatively modest. Nor does it matter that he is working for a company that is effectively state-owned. RBS is meant to operate on normal commercial principles in every other respect there is no reason why the CEO's remuneration should be exempt from that.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.