Stephen Hester's pay package
The BBC has reported that the chief executive of RBS, Stephen Hester, is about to be offered a new pay deal by the board . If one thing is predictable in life, it's the howls of outrage that will accompany the headline figure: £9.6 million. But the real figure is not £9.6 million - it's £1.2 million. Still a big salary, but on nothing like the same scale. The biggest chunk of the rest will be payable only if the share price of the bank hits 70p - double its current level and 40% up from the 50p at which the government originally invested - meaning that the taxpayer will have made an £8 billion profit on its RBS investment. So why is it being presented as a £9.6 million deal? Of course this might just be the BBC's spin. Perhaps they put together all the figures themselves and picked the highest figure, a natural thing for any reporter to do. But in fact it may be the bank who has decided to lead on this figure. If so, why would they do that? Surely they have an interest in k...