Lunchtime Links: Overseas bonus pots to be raided to pay the City?

As we mentioned yesterday, the UK government appears to be expecting bonuses to fall more than 80% due to its new tax.

However, the Financial Times today quotes senior bankers as saying banks will "eat the tax," with the result that individuals won't feel its effects.

The Times has reached a similar conclusion: it predicts that the cost of the tax in the UK will be spread globally, with the result that global bonus pools may be marginally down but City bankers won't be disproportionately effected.

German banks agree to implement G20 bonus restrictions early. (Marketwatch)

Josef Ackermann says German banks will exercise self restraint on pay. (Bloomberg)

30 members of Goldman's management committee will receive all their bonuses in shares. (Telegraph)

The awards will consist of so-called shares-at-risk that start vesting next year and can't be sold for five years. (Bloomberg)

90% of Goldman's US graduate hires this year were summer interns. (Bloomberg)

Banks will be forced to pay The Tax on share awards, whether or not they pay out. (Financial News)

Corporate finance boutiques may be immune. (Telegraph)

London contacts report senior investment bankers stacked three deep on the pavement outside advisory boutiques' offices this morning, banging on the custom paneled mahogany doors to get entrance for interviews. (Epicurean Dealmaker)

US advisory boutique Harris Williams has opened a London office. (Financial News)

Treasury is building up to a Tobin tax. (Telegraph)

My guess is that in the next decade we will see leadership in the capital markets more evenly spread round the world. London will be just part of a pack. (Financial Times)

Should the US impose a windfall tax? (Financial Times)

More on the FSA's increased capital requirements. (Alphaville)

We need bankers more than they need us. (The Times)

In the UK, interest rate cuts since the start of the crisis have delivered the average 103,000 floating rate mortgage holder an annual saving of 4,635. Against that, the government estimates the net cost of bailing out the financial system at 10bn - or 400 per household. For many Britons, the crisis has also handed them a windfall. Just like the bankers they love to loathe, few see it that way. (Financial Times)