December 28, 2009

Guy Hands, the private equity tycoon, has launched a stinging assault on the return of big bonuses within the banking industry, lambasting bankers for taking home "wheelbarrows of money" on the back of taxpayers' support.Mr Hands criticises the "quick and remarkable" return of the bonus culture in an annual letter to investors sent just weeks after the Terra Firma chairman filed a multi-billion pound lawsuit against Citigroup over his troubled acquisition of EMI music group.

"I wrote my 2008 annual letter days after the failure of Lehman Brothers," Mr Hands says. "At the time, the newspapers were full of bankers carrying cardboard boxes as they were sent home from their jobs . . . Only 12 months on and today's papers are again full of photos of bankers - but this time they are going home with wheelbarrows of money as the bonus season kicks in."Senior bankers are facing a chorus of complaints about a return to big bonus payments just 15 months after the near-collapse of the global financial system.