Bank's high flyer puts spotlight on bonuses

BANKING bonuses will provide the stormy backdrop for sector trading updates this week as Royal Bank of Scotland confirmed yesterday it has hired a City dealmaker who fought his previous employers for a £2 million payout in court.

John McIntyre, former head of global strategic advisory at Dresdner Kleinwort, has been appointed head of corporate finance at majority taxpayer-owned RBS.

Stephen Hester, RBS's chief executive, has said recruiting and keeping investment banking high-flyers is one of his biggest headaches in his three-to-five year turnaround programme at the group. McIntyre's appointment will raise City eyebrows, however, as he launched his successful High Court action to be paid his 2m bonus in the teeth of the furore about sector rewards.

His recruitment comes as RBS is shortly to enter its annual bargaining over banking bonuses with the government and UK Financial Investments - the quango that monitors taxpayer stakes in banks.

The bank created controversy last year when it emerged more than 100 staff earned in excess of 1 million last year despite the losses the group made - it edged into profitability in the first half of 2010. An RBS spokesman declined to comment yesterday apart from confirming the McIntyre appointment.

The bank is due to put out its third-quarter trading statement on Friday, with Lloyds Banking Group updating the City tomorrow.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports suggested Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks were in the takeover sights of NBNK, the Aim-listed investment vehicle set up by City grandee Lord Levene and ex-Morgan Stanley banker Sir David Walker.