Sturgeon: SNP bank would have to splash the cash on salaries
NICOLA Sturgeon has admitted that her stateowned bank will have to pay lucrative pay packages to attract top talent.
The SNP leader yesterday outlined detailed proposals for a publicly owned ‘national investment bank’ (NIB) which will receive up to £2billion of public funds over its first ten years.
But a blueprint produced by exTesco Bank chief Benny Higgins says the Scottish Government will need to offer similar packages to those of private firms to attract suitable staff.
Miss Sturgeon accepted the need for appropriate salaries – but insisted she would not support the type of ‘bonus culture’ seen in the private sector.
The blueprint estimates that the NIB would cost up to £30million a year in running costs and would employ up to 150 people. It states: ‘The bank will need staff with the right mix of skills and experience to ensure its success and sustainability.
‘The Scottish Government should ensure the bank can offer employment and remuneration terms which are sufficiently competitive to attract suitably skilled and experienced people.’
At the launch of the implementation plan in Edinburgh yesterday, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I think we would be getting ahead of ourselves in terms of where we are in the planning if we started putting numbers on salaries. What I would say though… if this bank is to be successful we will want to attract the top talent to run it and we will need to be able to attract that talent.
‘But equally… we live in a culture and climate where there can be a public concern about salaries that are over-inflated or, as you describe in shorthand, a bonus culture. We don’t want to obviously have those kind of concerns into a publicly owned organisation that is there for the public good, so these are issues we will require to look at and discuss closely.’
The Scottish Government is setting up the NIB to attempt to encourage ‘inclusive growth’ in the economy.
It has earmarked £500million of funding over the next three years which the bank will be able to lend. That will come partly from so-called ‘financial transactions’ given to the Scottish Government in the block grant from Westminster for loan and equity projects.
Miss Sturgeon said she is keen to ‘move at pace’ to set up the bank, and intends it to be operational in ‘shadow form’ next year.
Yesterday, Mr Higgins – who announced last July that he was leaving his role at Tesco Bank in the wake of the hacking scandal which saw money stolen from thousands of customers’ accounts – also raised concerns about the state of Scotland’s economy.
He warned that the outlook for growth is ‘languid at best’ and a reduction in business investment ‘shows no sign of abating’.
But he said the NIB could help improve this outlook, adding: ‘The economic and social wellbeing of our country will be enhanced by an institution that complements private sector investment.’
Scottish Labour economy spokesman Jackie Baillie said: ‘After years and years of announcements but little action, the SNP is finally bringing forward plans for a Scottish investment bank.
‘While this is welcome, it is disappointing that, even after all this time, the SNP is being so timid. Scotland’s economy desperately needs something much bolder and more ambitious.’
‘Want to attract the top talent’