TOP executives at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch have become the latest senior bankers to give up their bonuses this year as the global financial crisis bites.

Morgan Stanley chief executive John Mack and co-presidents Walid Chammah and James Gorman will not receive bonuses. Merrill chief John Thain and four deputies will also go without.

The decision follows outrage yesterday at reports that Thain was pressing for a $10 million (£6.7 million) bonus at Merrill, which had to be rescued by a Bank of America takeover in October.

Wall Street firms have been under intense public scrutiny on compensation plans amid the crisis and the huge bailout packages of taxpayers' money.

Merrill was saved in a deal that saw Bank of America take control after the US government agreed to guarantee many of its losses. Thain was not at the helm when Merrill racked up its toxic holdings, and was brought in to try to sort out the mess.

Morgan Stanley converted to a bank-holding company in September and received $10 billion in government aid.

So far, Goldman Sachs, UBS and Deutsche Bank have said their senior executives will receive no bonus. Mack, who picked up a $40 million all-stock bonus in 2006, is giving up his bonus for the second consecutive year.

Thain was given a $15 million bonus when he joined the brokerage last year from the New York Stock Exchange, where he was chief executive.

Thain's earlier insistence that he be paid a $10 million bonus attracted outrage from politicians who reluctantly passed the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or Tarp, that was designed strictly limit executive compensation.

The affair has also raised questions about the effectiveness of the Treasury Department's oversight of the bailout.