Germany backs calls to limit banker bonuses

Germany Friday threw its weight behind a scheme to limit bonuses for
bankers as part of a drive towards greater financial market
regulation to be debated at a key Group of 20 meeting next month.
'The federal government welcomes the French proposal for an
international initiative on pay in the banking sector,' Klaus Vater,
a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, told a regular briefing.
'Compensation systems can contribute to systemic risks that can
arise in banks. In Germany, we have already introduced a raft of
measures to reduce excesses in managers' pay,' he added. French
President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday he would call for limits on
bonuses for bank executives when he takes his campaign for greater
regulation to the G20 summit in Pittsburgh on September 24-25.
'We will propose a strengthening of sanctions towards banks that do
not play by the rules and we will even raise the issue of limiting
the size of bonuses,' Sarkozy said in Paris. Responding in a
television interview on Wednesday, Merkel said she was 'annoyed that
in certain banks, everything is starting up again as it was before'
and that the topic would be a ' central theme' at the G20 meeting.
The French plans also received backing from Brussels, with European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday stressing the
need for 'reinforced ethics.'