Cable Urges Bonus Moderation as Banks Warn of Exodus

Business Secretary Vince Cable dismissed warnings from U.K. banks of a potential brain drain to Asia if the government follows through on its pledge to crack down on bonuses.

Warnings that banks may quit London are “a familiar negotiating technique and clearly one has to listen to them -- one has to take these things seriously,” Cable said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Beijing yesterday. “But it is clear that you have got to balance that against our national interest. Banks have to be safe and that means that the regulations have to take into account the potential problems created by cash bonuses.”