Bankers guilty in Greek arson deaths

22 July 2013 Last updated at 16:07 GMT Three people in their thirties died in the attack Three bank officials in Greece have been given jail sentences of up to 10 years for failing to protect the lives of staff during a fatal arson attack by anti-austerity protesters in May 2010.

Three Marfin Bank staff members died in the attack on a central Athens branch, including a pregnant woman.

No-one has yet been convicted of causing the fire.

The Marfin branch had refused to allow staff to leave early, unlike other banks in the area.

The arson attack remains one of the most tragic moments of Greece's financial crisis, BBC Athens correspondent Mark Lowen reports.

Youths threw firebombs into the bank during a protest, starting the fatal fire.

The prime minister at the time, George Papandreou said it was a "raw, murderous act" while President Carolos Papoulias declared his country had "reached the edge of the abyss".

Suspended terms

The trial in Athens heard that the defendants had failed to take adequate measures to protect their staff, especially given that the branch had been attacked before. The defendants could have "predicted and prevented the outcome," the court heard.

The managing director of the Cyprus-based bank, Constantinos Vasilakopoulos, and the security head of the Stadiou street branch, Emmanouil Velonakis, were sentenced to 10 years in prison for manslaughter and causing bodily harm through negligence.

But the court ruled that the officials would have their terms suspended pending an appeal.

Branch manager Anna Vakalopoulou was given a five-year term while a fourth defendant, the deputy manager, was acquitted.

The court also asked for the case to be re-examined to see if other senior staff were responsible for ''negligent homicide''.

Arson attacks against public and private institutions in Greece have been frequent since the start of the financial crisis.

But street protests in Athens have calmed somewhat, with violent clashes no longer so common, our correspondent says.

Marfin Bank was later rebranded as Cyprus Popular Bank which nearly collapsed during the island's financial crisis in March.

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UK has most high-paid bankers in EU

15 July 2013 Last updated at 21:29 GMT 2,346 bankers in the UK earned more than 1mn euros in 2011 More British bankers earned more than one million euros (£860,000) each in 2011 than the rest of the European Union (EU) put together, according to the European Banking Authority (EBA).

Figures from the EU's banking regulator showed 2,346 bankers earned more than 1m euros in the UK, compared with 739 in the rest of the EU.

In Germany, Europe's second-largest economy, there were just 170.

The figures illustrate why Britain opposed EU plans for a bonus cap.

It was outvoted by countries that believe it will prevent bankers taking the kind of risks that led to the financial crisis. Under the plans, a senior banker's bonus will be limited to 100% of salary, or 200% with shareholder approval.

"The data show what has been feared for some time," said Nicholas Stretch, of law firm CMS Cameron McKenna.

"Because London has a very large number of people with variable high pay, the forthcoming bonus capping rules... will have a particular impact on our financial services industry and lead to extensive changes in how remuneration is provided."

But the BBC's business editor Robert Peston points out that many of the bankers in the UK - probably more than half - are not actually British.

Our correspondent also points out that pay in 2011 was down from the previous year. The average pay was £1.3 million pounds in 2011 compared to £2.5 million in 2010.

"There's one other point that may make people angry," Mr Peston says, "the EBA gathered this data because it wanted to justify its limit on bonuses...but bankers tell me this limit is encouraging banks to push up the fixed salaries that bankers are receiving."

Interestingly, Spain, where the banking industry had to be bailed out by the EU in 2012, had the highest average pay of any EU country in 2011. Senior bankers there earned 2.44 million euros - but that figure represents the pay of just 124 individuals.

In Greece, just two bankers earned more than one million euros as the country was negotiating its bailout.

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