FSA staff get same bonuses in spite of bank crisis

The watchdog which admitted a catalogue of failures over the Northern Rock crisis has dished out the same level of bonuses to staff as last year.

The Financial Services Authority did not cut the payments despite devastating criticism of its role.

Chief executive Hector Sants also told the Treasury select committee today that no staff had been sacked despite the first run on a British bank for more than a century.

The authority paid bonuses in 2007/8 of around 12 per cent of its salaries bill. In 2006/7, its wages bill, including taxable benefits such as bonuses and medical insurance, was £150 million.

The maximum special payout was 35 per cent of salary with some individuals getting zero.

Mr Sants said: "We paid the same percentage bonus to the employees of the FSA in 2007/8 as the previous year."

Tory MP Michael Fallon said: "Nobody fired and the same bonus level shows the FSA is not penalising failure."

The authority said four out of five staff closely involved in work on Northern Rock had left.