By . Daniel Martin . Bank of England staff have been awarded more than £25million in bonuses since the start of the credit crunch, it emerged yesterday. The payments have been handed out despite the fact that Governor Sir Mervyn King and his top team failed to anticipate the global financial crisis, and did nothing to prevent the Libor interest-rate rigging scandal. Figures yesterday showed that the level of payouts actually increased last year by £200,000 to £4.9million – as Britain returned to recession. Gloom: . Executives at the Bank of England have received bonuses of up to . £30,000 despite Governor Sir Mervyn King and his staff failing to . predict the credit crunch or the Libor interest-rate scandal . One MP called the taxpayer-funded sums ‘rewards for failure’. Over the past five years, thousands of Bank of England executives have received up to £30,000 in performance-related pay. The awards, handed out between when the credit crunch began in 2007 and this year, have totalled £25.3million. They come on top of generous salaries which exceed £150,000 a year for some of the Bank’s senior staff. However, Sir Mervyn, his deputies and members of the committee which set interest rates, are not among those who have received the extra money. Labour MP John Mann said paying bonuses to their staff when the Bank has performed so badly sets ‘a terrible example to commercial banks’, which have been accused of paying too much in bonuses. He added: ‘They [the Bank] should be leading the way in creating a new banking culture, not leading the way in paying excessive bonuses.’ Sir Mervyn has had to revise the Bank’s economic forecasts a dozen times since the credit crunch began, most recently on Wednesday, when he downgraded a previous 0.8 per cent growth prediction to zero. Last month the Bank of England injected an additional £50 billion into . the economy through its quantitative easing programme bringing the total . stock to £375billion . Mr Mann, a member of the Commons Treasury select committee, added: ‘It beggars belief that they could be paying bonuses at this time. They failed to pick up on the Libor scandal, they failed to pick up on other wrong-doings. ‘They have failed to properly analyse what is happening in the economy. It is totally wrong that they should be rewarded for failure.’ A spokesman for the Bank of England defended the bonuses. She said: ‘Our staff are on a two-year pay freeze which began in 2011. ‘Bonus payments are based on individual performance. The pot has been frozen at 6 per cent of the total salary bill for the past three years. Average awards for the past five years have been between £2,000 and £3,000.’
Thousands of Bank executives have received bonuses of up to £30,000 in performance related bonuses .
Comes days after Governor Mervyn King warned a recovery for the economy is still years away and slashed its growth forecast for the year to zero .
Labour MP John Mann said it's wrong Bankers are rewarded for failure .
Former Bank of England chief said it should have done more when credit crunch struck five years ago .
By . Daniel Martin . Bank of England staff have been awarded more than £25million in bonuses since the start of the credit crunch, it emerged yesterday. The payments have been handed out despite the fact that Governor Sir Mervyn King and his top team failed to anticipate the global financial crisis, and did nothing to prevent the Libor interest-rate rigging scandal. Figures yesterday showed that the level of payouts actually increased last year by £200,000 to £4.9million – as Britain returned to recession. Gloom: . Executives at the Bank of England have received bonuses of up to . £30,000 despite Governor Sir Mervyn King and his staff failing to . predict the credit crunch or the Libor interest-rate scandal . One MP called the taxpayer-funded sums ‘rewards for failure’. Over the past five years, thousands of Bank of England executives have received up to £30,000 in performance-related pay. The awards, handed out between when the credit crunch began in 2007 and this year, have totalled £25.3million. They come on top of generous salaries which exceed £150,000 a year for some of the Bank’s senior staff. However, Sir Mervyn, his deputies and members of the committee which set interest rates, are not among those who have received the extra money. Labour MP John Mann said paying bonuses to their staff when the Bank has performed so badly sets ‘a terrible example to commercial banks’, which have been accused of paying too much in bonuses. He added: ‘They [the Bank] should be leading the way in creating a new banking culture, not leading the way in paying excessive bonuses.’ Sir Mervyn has had to revise the Bank’s economic forecasts a dozen times since the credit crunch began, most recently on Wednesday, when he downgraded a previous 0.8 per cent growth prediction to zero. Last month the Bank of England injected an additional £50 billion into . the economy through its quantitative easing programme bringing the total . stock to £375billion . Mr Mann, a member of the Commons Treasury select committee, added: ‘It beggars belief that they could be paying bonuses at this time. They failed to pick up on the Libor scandal, they failed to pick up on other wrong-doings. ‘They have failed to properly analyse what is happening in the economy. It is totally wrong that they should be rewarded for failure.’ A spokesman for the Bank of England defended the bonuses. She said: ‘Our staff are on a two-year pay freeze which began in 2011. ‘Bonus payments are based on individual performance. The pot has been frozen at 6 per cent of the total salary bill for the past three years. Average awards for the past five years have been between £2,000 and £3,000.’
despite the fact that Governor Sir Mervyn King received bonuses of up to . £30,000 despite the past five years, thousands of Bank of England executives have received up to £30,000 in between when the credit crunch began in 2007 and Labour MP John Mann said paying bonuses to their the economy through its quantitative easing totally wrong that they should be rewarded for failure.’ A spokesman for the Bank of England