Winter storms forced British(government ministers and bank executives to postpone on Monday their meeting on the politically touchy issue of bank bonuses. The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills did not announce a new date but said it hoped the meeting could be rescheduled later this week. Treasury chief George Osborne, a key figure in the discussions, was delayed in returning from New York by the winter weather which has snarled air traffic in Britain.
Political rhetoric has been warming over the sometimes lavish bonuses given to bankers at time when public spending is being slashed and household finances are stretched. Business Secretary Vince Cable has decried ``scandalous' bonuses and has suggested that some form of taxation may be deployed to restrain payments.
Bankers have warned they will suffer a competitive disadvantage if Britain imposes tougher bonus rules than other countries, and say they might be tempted to move some operations abroad. Cable and Osborne had hoped to meet on Monday with executives of Britain's big banks, including two in which taxpayers hold large stakes. Banks have set aside a total of 7 billion pounds ($10.9 billion) to pay annual bonuses, the Center for Economics and Business Research has estimated.
``If they (banks) don't behave, if they don't take account of their wider responsibilities, the government has as a possibility some form of taxation there are various ways of doing this but we'd rather they accepted that they had wider obligations to British business and to the public,' Cable said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp on Sunday.
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