Ex-Lehman staff in line for Nomura cash bonanza

Lehman's senior management, led by Christian Meissner and William Vereker, negotiated guaranteed bonuses for themselves and the division's 400-strong staff when they brokered the sale of Lehman's European and Asian investment banking division to Nomura last September.

Under the agreement, Nomura pledged to match what Lehman's bankers earned in 2007, a record year for City pay, and will pay out two-thirds of the bonus at the end of March as a reward for staying with Nomura for six months.

The rest will be paid to those who remain at the bank for the first anniversary of the deal in September.

The pay deals affect staff at all levels, but could reach beyond £1 million for a handful of the firm's top rainmakers.

Nomura has also guaranteed 2007 levels of pay for the division's managing directors for a further year, with a portion being paid in Nomura stock, as a condition of them joining at the time of the acquisition.

The pay deals have been a source of tension among some non-Lehman bankers at Nomura, which recently said it was raising $3.3 billion (£2.4 billion) to shore up its balance sheet.

It follows a decision by Nomura's own top management, led by chief executive Kenichi Watanabe, to forgo their annual bonuses after reporting big losses. 

A Lehman banker in London said: "I'm not expecting anyone to have any sympathy for bankers but it's worth remembering that a large part of our bonuses in recent times has been paid in shares that we could not cash in for five years.

"So when Lehman went bust, we got completely wiped out. I've effectively worked for free for the last three years."

The banker added that his pay deal pales in comparison with the one struck by his former bosses in Lehman's New York operation.

Eight Lehman executives secured annual pay of $25 million when they sold the bank's US investment banking business to Barclays after Lehman's collapse. Nomura refused to comment.

News of the bumper payouts are bound to spark a fresh "rewards for failure" row but Nomura could face legal action if they withhold the bonuses.

About 250 staff at rival Dresdner Kleinwort in London are taking legal action after their bonuses were slashed during the takeover by Commerzbank.

The overall payout could hit £50 million and at least one Dresdner banker is believed to be demanding more than £10 million even though Dresdner posted a €6.3 billion (£5.8 billion) loss for 2008.

Former owner Allianz set aside €400 million in its bonus pot but Commerzbank slashed payouts by 90% after an €18 billion German taxpayer bailout.

Fed's call to G20

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke today called on the leaders of the G20 world's richest nations to agree a consistent bank bailout plan when they meet in London at the start of next month.

"This is very much an international problem and it requires international solutions," Bernanke said.

"In particular, we need to work together effectively to make sure that we have solutions for our banking systems that are not mutually inconsistent or create problems across jurisdictions.

"We need to make sure that we are working together to stabilise the banking system and to avoid the failure of systemically critical firms."

He also said that he did not favour suspending mark-to-market accounting, which has forced banks to announce billions of dollars of writedowns.