Lloyds Bank Reports £3.54bn Loss For 2011

Of course, the usual cry from people with vested interests in these matters is that in order to retain these highly clever people who run these banks at a loss, we must keep paying obscene bonuses. I've got a better idea. How about any company that loses money actually dismisses its CEO? It would happen to us peasants at the bottom, so why not the top?

It is hardly a surprise now, is it? RBS and all that. Ever since Thatcher removed the banking regulations (which allowed them ALL to rip the public off with miss-sold pensions, insurances, investments - its quite a long list) the banks have all been saying to themselves "Oh My, aren't we all doing well, lets give ourselves salary rises and a bonus", this has gone on and on and on, with no one at the FSA, the BoE or any MP's or Ministers - of any party - prepared to stand up and say, "Hey, wait a minute, there is something wrong here". Not until the #$%$ hit the fan with the Northern Rock, then RBS and the "Goodwin Effect" did it suddenly dawn on the powers that be in their respective cotton wool lined ivory towers counting their expenses, that there was a problem.Think about it for a moment, they couldn't really complain could they? MP's, Ministers and Lords were not really interested in what was going on at the banks just a vested interest in their profits - most of them had - and probably still have - second and third jobs on the boards, so they were on nice little earners thank-you very much, just like on the boards of the newly privatised utilities and railways - nice little earners. besides they all had their expenses and allowances to think about during those times, their duck houses here, renew my garden shed there, Sky TV installation somewhere else, a new roof on the mansion on my estate - no not just loose statements, theses were real claims on expenses that only started coming to light when the lid was blown off during the expenses scandal, so to stand up and declare that there was something seriously amiss in the banking sector would have been a shot in the foot for them all.Of course we all now know who is footing the bill for all of this Crass Greed - the tax payer, who is slowly getting crushed by the fall out, plummeting pound, rising fuel, food and energy bills hand in hand with pay cuts and benefit cuts, it is no wonder that the low paid are now voicing such anger through their respective unions and demanding an increase in their poverty level salaries - especially as the Crass Greed of the Bonus machine is still rumbling onward (RBS bonuses announced yesterday even though they are over £2bn in the red).But what to do about it all now, an awful lot of damage has been caused to the whole economic infrastructure of the country by this blinkered vision of self greed, yet paradoxically, only the TSB has taken steps to claw back some of the bonuses. a glimmer of hope perhaps that there is at least some moral intelligence emerging.There needs to be a stop to All these bonuses, a reduction of All these enormous unearned salaries - the Something for Nothing culture, to paraphrase Cameron's favorite saying but in the right area of greed - the imposing of a rigid prices and incomes policy seems to me to be the only real way to control the farce of huge bonuses and salaries, the farce of uncompetitive pricing - Cartels - and the continually increasing spiraling cost of food and essentials. It needs someone with guts and determination, and above all a good moral judgment and respect for the common people to see this, I cannot think of one MP that comes anywhere near fitting this description. There is only one person I can think of who fits the bill, and he's a highly decorated retired Chief of Staff of the army, and not a politician.

Again I find myself in the position of having to correct the general consensus : the banks are NOT owned by the Taxpayer, they are owned by the government. Taxpayers do not have any say in how the banks are runs, neither do any of them receive any kind of shareholder dividends. Likewise the taxpayer is forced to live in thrall to these institutions and continually forced to suffer at the hands of their (both the banks and the governments) mismanagement.

Why not reduce the loss further by not paying ANY bonus. Other people manage to survive on their salaries without getting bonuses for losing other peoples money

Why do all the Banks not owned by us make huge profits while the ones owned by us do?

Is it clever/massaged accounting i.e. "Shareholder value" is no longer a priority as they know we have no power? Is it that they're writing off all the losses now, keeping the Shares low, and will sell to private investors that will reap bumper rewards later when not in Public ownership??

Call me a cynic....

Hopefully someone can tell me differently.

Here is a thought ..lets take all the bonuses paid to directors,CEO's leading 'captains of industry' et al..then convert them to mortgage payments, credit card payments etc for the general public and lets see how it works out. That's just for one year in case anybody asks, or maybe two, or maybe for however long this austerity drive continues and ' we all have to be in this together' idea lasts!

The directors of this bank that were responsible for the PPI fiasco should face criminal charges it was nothing less than organised fraud !!

There should be no bonuses until these banks are in profit and lending to small businesses.

aha, the bigger the losses, the BIGGER the bonus`s !!!

The saddest thing is that they'll claim they've done really well as they are the very best. And as the very best they have to be really well paid. It's abhorrent but that's how it is. They will eventually return to profit regardless of who is in charge.

i dont believe a #$%$ for thats who these people are hanging on to their very nice life style

Grimm fairy tales

Get your cash out of Lloyds and RBS while u still can!

Sorry, these figures are meaningless. I am a frugal person, anything above £20,000.00 is neither here nor there. Let us just put some food on the table, sod the figures & the bankers!

£3.54 billion loss: crack open the champagne!

Pay it out In out in Bonus 's then declare a Loss.

Always good to know that banks can lose money (somewhat irresponsible of them really) and still stay in business........if only the rest of us had such a privileged opportunity to fail.

How can they justify these obscene bonuses (which have been subsidised by honest hard-working taxpayers) when the only "bonus" thousands of laid-off public service and other workers have received is a P45!

More bonuses need obviously.

Stop talking about average bonuses. We need to know the highest and lowest and what they do, then we can judge if they are worth it