Known for making a bob or two coining it in himself fairly regularly, George Soros has waded into the bonus debate. He said in this weekend’s Independent:

“Banks are actually getting hidden subsidies of enormous amounts because of their ability to borrow at effectively zero, and buy 10-year government bonds at 3.5 per cent. So those earnings are not the achievement of risk-takers. These are gifts, hidden gifts, from the Government, so I don’t think those monies should be used to pay bonuses. So there’s a resentment which I think is justified.”

In the Financial Times, Soros said there was a need to regulate payments to employees, even if banks then found it harder to retain talented risk-takers.

“That would push the risk-takers who are good at taking risks out of Goldman Sachs into hedge funds, where they actually belong, because hedge funds take risks with their own capital, not with deposits and not with government guarantees.”

No self-interest there then.