Ministers, unions condemn ‘greedy’ bank pay rises as ‘wrong signal’

DutchNews.nl, March 20, 2015

Ministers and banking unions on Friday were quick to criticise news that three big Dutch financial services firms have increased the basic pay of senior executives by up to 46%. 

ING and insurance company NN said on Thursday they had put up executive pay by between 28% and 46%. State-owned ABN Amro said on Friday it had increased the pay of six senior staff by €100,000, or around 17%.

The sharp pay rises follow a decision by the government to slap a 20% ceiling on banking sector bonuses. 

While acknowledging the banks had remained within the letter of the law, finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the increases are ‘sending out the wrong signal’.

‘This is difficult to understand at a time when banks are still recovering, in which the sector is undergoing change and lots of jobs are being lost,’ Dijsselbloem told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting. 

Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher said the rises ‘stuck in his throat’. 

Greedy

Banking union De Unie described the ABN Amro increases as ‘incredibly greedy’.

‘Top bankers first treated us to a system crisis that cost €28bn in taxpayers money for ABN Amro alone,’ said chairman Reinier Castelein. ‘They shamelessly steal from us with excessive mortgage rates and still persist in their old ways of, me, myself and I.’ 

Castelein also criticised Dijsselbloem for his approach. ‘Dijsselbloem, the real boss of ABN Amro, is passively looking on,’ Castelein said.

Related Articles:

17% pay rise for ABN Amro executives, apart from the boss

ING ups executive pay to avoid financial sector bonus ceiling

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy,Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) -(Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”