The banking sector has come under a lot of criticism over the course of the past couple of years and many people blame the banks for the recent credit crunch and banking crisis, due to their past record of irresponsible lending and offering large loans to individuals who would have had very little chance of ever being able to afford to repay them.

A number of large high street banks have been partially privatised by huge loans from the Government in order to bail them out, yet despite this, many of them are still unable to offer competitive cheap loans to individuals and small businesses who need funding.

But recently, banks have started to declare large profits once again and although they may be unable to offer loans to those people who need them, many are able to pay large bonuses to many of their high ranking officials, which has caused a large amount of anger amongst the general public.

In an attempt to calm public feeling and to show some humility, the Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Stephen Hester, has announced that he intends to give up his bonus for last year, which is worth around £1.6 million.

This follows a move from bosses at Barclays Bank, who announced last week that they would give up their latest bonus payments. This now places pressure on other chief executives of banks to make a similar gesture in the interests of good will towards bank customers and the public.

70 per cent of RBS is currently owned by the government through loans granted in order to bail the bank out and although Mr Hester is giving up his £1.6 million bonus, his earnings will still be in excess of £8 million for the year.