RBS Boss 'To Be Offered 12 Million Shares'

Tadhg Enright, business correspondent
RBS chief executive Stephen Hester is likely to be offered a potential bonus of 12 million shares for 2012, according to Sky News sources.
Mr Hester is already under intense pressure to refuse a bonus of just under £1m he has been awarded for his work in 2011.
But now Sky's city editor Mark Kleinman has discovered the bank's remuneration committee has been discussing his reward for his work this year.
It is expected to announce its plans in February.
A bonus of 12 million shares in the bank, which is 83% owned by the taxpayer, would be worth more than £3m based on the current share price.
The development will inflame the ongoing row about Mr Hester's pay and comes as RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton revealed he is not accepting his £1.4m bonus for 2011.
Kleinman said the move was designed to "take the heat off" Mr Hester but it risks backfiring.
"Sir Philip Hampton believes that by relinquishing his own award, he will help to defuse the row over bonuses at RBS," he wrote.
A source at the bank said the decision was unlikely to change Mr Hester's position.
Sir Philip was appointed as chairman of RBS after its £45bn taxpayer rescue in Autumn 2008.
On Thursday, he defended the decision to award Mr Hester a bonus.
"The board is aware of the difficulties in trying to reconcile the competing objectives of all our stakeholders. This is especially true on the issue of pay," he said.
"His (Hester's) pay is strongly geared to the recovery of RBS, which he was recruited to turn around, having played no part in its collapse.
"The priority is to reshape a business that was far too big and far too risky, reducing legacy losses whilst improving performance in the group's core businesses."
Prime Minister David Cameron insisted it was up to Mr Hester to decide whether to give up his bonus.
"It's a matter for him," he said at Chequers. "It's obviously his decision. My decision is to make sure the team at RBS get on with the job of turning the bank round."
He added: "I think we need to get the facts straight. The fact is Stephen Hester was brought in by the last government, a contract signed by the last government to turn round RBS - a bank that had got itself into a complete mess.
"The Government has made its views known and that is why his bonus was cut in half compared to last year but we do have to bear in mind that the alternatives to what's happening now could be even more expensive if you had a whole new team coming into RBS."