The chief executive officers of RBS, Lloyds and Barclays may have waived their bonuses for 2009 and HSBC CEO Michael Geoghegan may have agreed to donate his to charities, but pay generally increased in 2009 as investment-bank revenues rose.

Bloomberg: Barclays Capital, the investment-banking unit of Barclays Plc, increased its pay and bonuses per employee by about 93 percent in 2009, according to company filings. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the U.K.’s biggest government-owned bank, raised total compensation per employee by about 73 percent last year. Of the U.K.’s three largest banks, HSBC Holdings Plc was the only one where pay declined slightly in its investment bank.

So, although bank chiefs are outwardly nodding, the hand in the pocket has a v-sign pointing right at Alistair Darling.

“The banks are just paying lip-service to what they think politicians and the public want to hear while carrying on as normal,” said Chris Roebuck, a visiting professor at Cass Business School in London. “The apparent changes they’ve made to compensation are just an exercise in smoke and mirrors.”

If the public are convinced by this charade then what do the politicians care.

“Banker bashing is an easy crowd pleaser,” Wells said. “It has been an easy way for Labour to shore up their core vote. The polling shows that people don’t like bankers.”

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