Dutch finance minister to tackle bonuses

Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos is working on extra measures to regulate bonuses at firms receiving government support, which includes ING.

Finance minister Wouter Bos is proposing extra measures to curb bonuses at financial services companies that have received government help. Bos said so in a draft letter to parliament, public television station NOS reports.

The proposal follows the controversy over 300 million euros in bonuses paid out by ING despite an earlier 10 billion euros government bailout. Some Dutch members of parliament want bonuses at bailed-out financial institutions to be heavily taxed.

Bos is looking into new measures to keep bonuses and other forms of variable pay from being paid out in 2009.

"The message is clear," Bos said ahead of crisis talks on Monday. "If taxpayer money is used to help save jobs there can be no room for bonuses at that firm."

Bos wants companies asking for government support to adhere to strict rules about variable rewards. For anything above the collective salary agreements, zero should be the starting point, Bos says.

ING on Monday announced that it is was making a 'moral appeal' to its 1,200 top managers to forgo their 2008 bonuses.