The double whammy facing bank shares

With a bonus pot of up to £7bn, it's been another good year to be a banker with a job. But it's a different story for bank shares, which are being stalked by two fears in particular. Life for the big banks is about to get tough again.

It's been another good year to be a banker with a job. Estimates of the total amount that UK bank employees might trouser this Christmas vary from about £4.5bn to £7bn. And once again, politicians have to be seen to "do something".

Hence the reported clash between George Osborne and Vince Cable over whether or not bonus payments of over £1m should be separately disclosed. And the warnings from the Treasury that bankers should "think very carefully" about bonuses.

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Tim graduated with a history degree from Cambridge University in 1989 and, after a year of travelling, joined the financial services firm Ernst and Young in 1990, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1994.

He then moved into financial markets training, designing and running a variety of courses at graduate level and beyond for a range of organisations including the Securities and Investment Institute and UBS. He joined MoneyWeek in 2007.