Bankers caused crash & got away with it,says Carney: Bank of England chief says bosses should have paid higher price

• Governor Mark Carney launches stinging attack on irresponsible bankers
• Claims those responsible for 2008 financial crisis got away without sanction
• Mr Carney: 'They are still on the best golf courses. That has got to change'

By Mail Foreign Service

The Governor of the Bank of England last night launched a stinging attack on the bankers who caused the financial crisis and ‘got away without sanction’.

Mark Carney said the bosses of the banks behind the 2008 global financial crash should have paid a higher price for their errors.

Instead – despite facing limited social embarrassment – they were still on the ‘best golf courses’.

Speaking in Washington, Mr Carney said: ‘The individuals who ran the institutions got away with it. They got away with their compensation packages and without sanction.

‘Maybe they are no longer at the most esteemed table in society, but they are still on the best golf courses and that has got to change.’

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Bank of England Governor Mark Carney (pictured) has told a Washington audience the bankers who caused the 2008 global financial crisis have 'got away without sanction'

During a panel discussion on financial ethics, Mr Carney made it clear he had no sympathy for board-level bankers who would not take personal responsibility for the actions of their organisations.

The Bank governor, who has been in Washington for a series of International Monetary Fund meetings, complained that the authorities had been unable to jail any of the bankers whose failings led to the global financial crisis.

His rebuke came as two senior executives of HSBC are poised to quit their jobs over new tough rules that would see ‘reckless’ financial executives facing jail for their actions or omissions in the event of a major failing by their bank.

But Mr Carney said such rules were necessary because the heads of banks during the crisis had got away with huge amounts of money without criminal sanction.

He made it clear he rejected the complaints of the HSBC board members without naming the pair or specifically referring to their bank.

While it was difficult to come up with acceptable compensation schemes and incentives, he said one thing that was vital to make the system safer was clearer personal responsibility. Curtailing financial rewards alone was not enough.

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Two senior HSBC executives are poised to quit their jobs over tough new rules on 'reckless' bank actions

He said: ‘If you are the chairman or the head of the risk committee, you have a responsibility for the activities of that institution.

‘If you don’t think you can do it, you shouldn’t be on the board.’

The new regulation regime of senior managers is designed to make it easier to bring criminal charges in a future banking crisis. Mr Carney added: ‘It does focus the mind of directors and it should. I would like to think that the minds of directors are being focused. Some of them might not like it – that’s okay.’

It emerged last week that two HSBC executives are preparing to leave the bank amid concerns over the potential personal and criminal responsibility they would face in future.

TOP BOSSES' PAY SOARS AS STAFF FEEL SQUEEZE 

Directors at Britain’s biggest companies saw their average earnings rise by a fifth last year despite a nationwide wage squeeze.

Boardroom executives at FTSE 100 companies pocketed huge bonuses, according to a survey published today by pay research group Incomes Data Services (IDS).

These helped push their average total earnings to £2.4million – 21 per cent higher than last year. The staggering sum is almost 100 times higher than the average wage of £26,500 per annum. FTSE 100 chief executives now typically earn 120 times more than their full-time staff, the report said.

Critics said the findings showed a ‘huge gap’ in pay levels between boardrooms and ordinary workers. Most British staff have seen their pay lag behind inflation since the financial crash. The basic salary for most FTSE 100 directors rose last year by 2.5 per cent – just below the 2.8 per cent level of inflation at the time, the IDS report said. Top directors also enjoyed a 12 per cent rise in bonuses.

FTSE 100 chief executives – who are generally the highest paid in any organisation – receive an average basic salary of £832,000 and an average bonus of £1million. They also benefit from share payouts of around £2million.

Deborah Hargreaves from the High Pay Centre think-tank said: ‘There’s a huge gap opening up. We’ve seen workforce wages stagnating across the board, while chief executives’ remuneration continues to go up. ‘This is not healthy for our economy, our country or our society.’

Alan Thomson, who sits on the audit and risk committees of HSBC, has resigned and will leave the board of the bank’s UK subsidiary in January. John Trueman, its deputy chairman, is also preparing to resign.

Mr Carney has always taken a tough stance on personal responsibility and has a history of standing firm in the face of complaints from financial sector employees.

Meanwhile, the taxman has ramped up prosecutions against individuals suspected of tax dodging – but is still accused of letting corporate giants off the hook.

The number of court cases HMRC brought for illegal tax evasion rose last year by almost a third – from 612 to 795 – data from Thomson Reuters shows today.

It is not yet known how many were successful.

But it is claimed the taxman has done deals with Google that allow it to avoid paying millions in the UK.