Bankers may have to 'return bonuses' under new rules

Bankers will be subject to having their bonuses clawed back for as many as six years after they are awarded under new rules put forward by the Bank of England.

All firms supervised by the Prudential Regulation Authority will have to change staff contracts to enable them to claw back bonuses which have vested. This goes further than current rules which allow the removal of unvested bonuses.

Clawback will happen when staff are shown to have misbehaved or made major errors, firms suffer major financial downturns or are hit by failure of risk controls.

The new rules will come in from January 2015.