Unprofitable and bailed-out French bank Natixis said on Friday it would award 70 million euros (US$95 million) in bonuses, further fueling controversy over payouts to executives of companies rescued with taxpayer money.
The government plans to issue a decree next week limiting or banning bonuses and stock options at companies bailed out with public funds, a reaction to growing discontent over what some see as the corporate greed that caused the financial crisis.
The Natixis bonuses for 3,000 staff are 73 percent lower than in 2007, said a company official who was not authorized to speak publicly because of company policy. Senior managers gave up all stock options and bonuses, she said.
The bonuses are mainly for employees in the bank’s financing operations and less than a third of traders will get a bonus, she said.
Troubles at Natixis, which lost 2.8 billion euros last year, caused its key owners Caisse d’Epargne and Banque Populaire to merge last month.
Natixis has already received 2 billion euros in state aid through a bailout package for France’s largest banks, and its two parents are set to receive another 5 billion euros.
Last year, Natixis said it was cutting 15 percent of its investment banking staff, or 840 jobs.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s governing conservative party UMP demanded a detailed explanation of Natixis’ bonuses.
“How can we justify the attribution of such sums given Natixis’ poor global performance?” UMP spokesman Frederic Lefebvre asked.
GdF Suez said on Thursday that the executives ***--*** chairman Gerard Mestrallet and vice chairman Jean-Francois Cirelli ***--*** had decided to give up the stock options granted last year “out of concern for responsibility.”
Striking port workers who disrupted activity at the company’s two liquefied natural gas terminals in France pressured the move.
Under pressure from the government, top executives at French bank Societe Generale, which took government bailout funds, gave up tens of thousands of stock options earlier this week.
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