Just 43 senior AIB staff have shared a €3.7m bonus pot this year
Only senior executives and managers within AIB's capital markets division have received bonuses this year - with drastically fewer people than in 2009 getting payouts related to performance in 2006-07.
The €3.7m AIB has paid out in bonuses this year are for a select few senior staff - and more junior employee - and have been deferred since 2006-07. Just two executives are sharing €710k with a further €3m split between 41 managers. One person in the 'other staff' category got €20k
To some, of course, this will seem excessive, but it pales in comparison to 2009 payments. As the table below shows, 2,825 people within AIB's capital markets division shared a bonus pot of €54.86m last year, with 62 executives receiving an average payment of €179k each.
The figures were revealed by finance minister Brian Lenihan in response to a parliamentary question on 1 December. It's also on the back of the revelation that AIB has paid out €40m to capital markets deferred from 2008.
The bank has received a lot of flack for this move, with finance union IBOA suggesting that the staff defer the bonuses again until AIB returns to profitability.
Lenihan has attempted to silence critics by saying that he'd impose a 90% tax on any future bonuses paid by banks under the government guarantee. The Dáil will debate the bill in January.
In principle, this is all very well and will no doubt get the populist vote, but it's doubtful how much money it will raise.
AIB has already paid these bonuses, so will not be taxed at the new punitive rate if the bill is passed, and we understand that no performance related bonuses have been paid for 2009.
Similarly, in the same parliamentary answer Bank of Ireland said it hadn't paid bonuses for 2009, and has told us previously that 2010 payments are unlikely.
Anglo Irish Bank, which gave all staff up to manager level a 5% salary increase last year, will pay five staff bonuses this year - again based on contractual obligations around deferred earnings in previous years. No performance-based bonuses will be paid for 2010.
