Finance minister Wouter Bos said on Friday afternoon that he will make tougher demands about bonuses paid by banks if they look for any more government bail-outs.

But calls by some MPs for a new super tax rate on bonuses went too far at the moment, Bos told reporters.
The finance minister was commenting on the growing row over the 100,000 share golden hello for ING´s new chief financial officer Patrick Flynn, on top of a salary of €650,000. The shares, currently worth €400,000, can be cashed in from next year.
ING has had a €10bn bail-out from the treasury and a toxic loan guarantee of up to €22bn.
Bos, who said yesterday he shared people’s ‘anger and frustration’ about Flynn’s share package, is to meet top bankers within two weeks to discuss salary policy, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Friday.
Shell bonuses
Meanwhile, Shell’s works council says it is ‘outraged’ at the steep rise in bonuses paid to 15,000 managers over 2008, reports news agency AFN on Friday. The central works council (COR) wrote to Shell on Thursday saying this was unacceptable in a situation where ‘the agreed aims of the company have not been achieved’, says AFN.
The works council points out that only last week it agreed with Shell’s decision not to increase wages in 2009 because of the financial crisis. ‘Savings are being made throughout the company, jobs are being lost and the index link for Shell’s pensioners is up for discussion,’ says the works council.