France Plans New Guidelines To Curb Trader Bonuses

Some of the country`s largest banks had reached agreement with financial market regulator Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF).

France's financial authorities have drawn up new guidelines governing the bonuses and salary structures of traders to curb excessive payouts and overly-risky conduct, newspaper Le Monde said.

Some of the country's largest banks had reached agreement with financial market regulator Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF), the Banking Commission and the treasury office on ways to rein in bonuses, it said in its Sunday/Monday edition.

According to a document obtained by Le Monde, the new code of conduct, to be submitted to Economy Minister Christine Lagarde in the coming days, would apply from this year but affect traders' bonuses from the beginning of 2010.

"It aims to moderate the weight of the variable portion of pay compared with the salary so that this does not encourage unreasonable risk taking," Le Monde said.

The government had forced banks to review bonus structures as part of the conditions it set for helping to shore up balance sheets in the face of the world's worst financial crisis in decades.