You know I’d just remained speechless over the government’s appointment of Stephen Hester to head the Royal Bank of Scotland and his vast pay packet which is estimated at almost £10m. Now the state owned bank has announced

That chief executive Stephen Hester has agreed not to cash in shares worth up to £3.4m for a further two years.

The share option was given to Mr Hester last month as part of a new pay package worth a potential £9.6m. BBC.

Mr Hester had originally been eligible to sell the shares in 2012, should the bank’s share price rise about 70 pence, but this has now been extended to 2014. BBC.

And why have they done this?

A Royal Bank of Scotland spokeswoman said the bank recognised that Mr Hester’s remuneration needed to be better linked to the bank’s longer term performance. BBC.

The trouble is the worth of a companies shares has nothing to do with a companies performance as recent history shows all to well – the banks where riding high in the stock market before the credit crunch, however, as we all now know they were actually insolvent and had to be nationalised. As I and many others have said there is little appetite for any form of banking regulation – could that be because lots labour MPs will be looking to the city for jobs after the general election?