When taxpayers bailed out Lloyds Banking Group – which was two separate banks Lloyds TSB and HBOS at the time – and Royal Bank of Scotland and the expectation was that the government stake would have begun to be sold off by now. And at a profit.
Instead, three years later, the taxpayer is nursing a loss of close to £32bn on stakes originally worth more than £60bn. The meltdown in the financial markets and the impact of the report by the independent commission on banking to "ringfence" high street banks is being blamed for the fall in the share prices.
Much of their compensation is in stock, but needless to say those in charge are well compensated.