“Financial workers at Wall Street’s top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year (…)”

“None of the banks the Guardian contacted wished to comment on the record about their pay plans. But behind the scenes, one source said: ‘For a normal person the salaries are very high and the bonuses seem even higher. But in this world you get a top bonus for top performance, a medium bonus for mediocre performance and a much smaller bonus if you don’t do so well.’”

“Many critics of investment banks have questioned why firms continue to siphon off billions of dollars of bank earnings into bonus pools rather than using the funds to shore up the capital position of the crisis-stricken institutions. One source said: ‘That’s a fair question – and it may well be that by the end of the year the banks start review the situation.’”