Keep banks away from our pensions
IN last week’s Business section there were two news items about banks, perhaps placed on facing pages to elicit a response from the downtrodden of the universe, so here goes.
The first report said that banks will be allowed to palm off bad debts to pensioners through various financial manoeuvrings. The second reported that HBOS hid bad loans from its auditors. Perhaps I am being a bit simplistic, but, knowing that most banks have played fast and loose with other people’s money and shown scant regard for the generally accepted norms of corporate behaviour, where is the leader who will say, “Oh no you don’t”?
Mike Madgwick Shaftesbury, Dorset
Top-rate tax shouldn’t cost any jobs
IN a recent Agenda column, Dominic O’Connell suggested the 50p income tax band should be scrapped because it is stifling job creation. Here are a few figures to ponder.
He said there are just over 300,000 people in Britain who are expected to earn more than £150,000 this year. It was stated these people are predicted to pay £47 billion in tax. On this basis, the average annual income per person in this group is about £360,000. Before the introduction of the 50p rate, their monthly take home pay (before national insurance deductions) would have been about £18,700. With the 50p rate that falls to about £17,000. With that level of income, it should not be difficult to create a few more jobs.
Regarding national insurance contributions, it is worth noting that someone on the average wage of £26,000 pays 8.7% of their gross pay while someone on £360,000 pays 3%.
George Pritt Whitehaven, Cumbria
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A lot to learn from getting out and about
I WAS surprised to read a chief executive saying he did not visit work sites, preferring to spend his time on “strategy” and “acquisitions” (“I’m fit to take on the world”, last week).
He is not alone, as this seems to be the new order among modern chief executives and far removed from the MBWA (Management By Wandering About) offered by Tom Peters in his 1980s seminal work,
In Search of Excellence.
From his research, Peters concluded that the chief executives of really great, successful companies spent much of their time “walking the job”, meeting the staff, talking to customers and seeing at first hand their product, which would reveal far more about their organisation than hearing secondhand reports from middle managers.
Monthly informal walkabouts were considered the minimum and never failed to produce experiences and information that would have significant influence on the running of the business and even on future strategy.
In my former company, as with many others in those days, we wholeheartedly embraced Peters’ findings to great effect in building and sustaining companies that served all their stakeholders.
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I guess that was a passing fad, with more focus now being placed on the self-serving, short-term, bonus-enhancing corporate culture that serves only the privileged few.
Peter Smith Hawkchurch, Devon
The ascent of mobile phone banking
IN the developed world we like to believe that we are at the cutting edge when it comes to creativity and new inventions. While last week’s article “No cheques please, just pay my mobile” made for interesting reading, I could not help thinking about the likes of Somaliland.
For all the press coverage surrounding Barclays’ Pingit technology, the fact is that people in the Horn of Africa are way ahead of the game when it comes to using mobile phones to transfer money. Mobile phone banking was introduced in Somaliland in 2009 and has since spread across the region.
Mark Jones executive director, Horn of Africa Business Association, London SW7