• 
  Jill Treanor
  


• 
  guardian.co.uk,
  Tuesday 12 January 2010 12.46 GMT
  

Stephen Hester, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, admitted today that his parents believe he is paid too much as he stressed that his bonus package was currently worthless because the bank's shares had failed to rise.

Asked by the Treasury select committee of MPs whether he understood why the government wants to restrict bonuses at the state-controlled bank, Hester replied: "Yes".

He
insisted that the bank did not yet know the size of the bonus pot that
would be split between its 22,000 investment bankers. Hester also
revealed that a "handful" of highly paid bankers would avoid the
restriction placed on the bank not to pay cash bonuses to anyone
earning more than £39,000 because of legal commitments made to them.

He
told the MPs, who are also taking evidence from his counterparts at
Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock, that his "biggest single
business problem" was recruiting people who were concerned about the
criticism they might encounter if they work for RBS.

Institutional investors had "raised concerns about our

more...