Osborne, hammer of the City. Or not  BONUSES are the “lightning
rod” of the public's lack of trust in finance, reckons Hector
Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, a
watchdog. Ahead of banks announcing their annual pay packets and
results next month, the political atmosphere is electric.  The
anger extends far beyond the artificial sort whipped up by
newspapers. Most people find it incredible that banks directly
bailed out by the state are set to line their employees' pockets
again. Many normally sober economists spit that those firms that
were not bailed out are making payouts from profits boosted by
the implicit guarantee that highly leveraged banks enjoy.
Although they form a small part of the overall pay bill of
banks, much of the hostility is directed at the rewards banks'
bosses get. For the past two years the heads of Britain's five
big firms—HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Barclays, Lloyds
and Standard Chartered—have tried to be seen to exercise pay
restraint, for instance w