The Financial Times reports that JPMorgan is thought to have asked UK market regulator The Financial Services Authority to look into a $50m compensation package allegedly being offered to its star commodity trader, Todd Edgar, and his team, by Barclays Capital to entice them to join. JPMorgan is said to be concerned that the package, made up of cash and stock, will serve to distort City pay.

According to the newspaper, the package on offer to the JPMorgan traders also includes an enhanced 'good leaver' clause, which will mean that, in certain circumstances, they will be free to leave Barclays in two years and take their deferred compensation with them.

The news has predictably got UK politicians to look up from calculating their expense claims long enough to express outrage.

In the meantime, Reuters reports that US 'pay czar' Kenneth Feinberg apparently has the authority to 'claw back' money already paid to executives of TARP recipient firms (even those, like Goldman, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan which have now repaid any support). We at Here Is The City are not sure what that means, as the vast majority of CEOs at the 'systemically important' firms who took the TARP last year got no bonuses in 2008 anyway.

And Bloomberg reports that Citi may be coming under pressure from the Obama administration to change the terms of Phibro trader Andrew Hall's $100m compensation package so that he receives much of it in deferred Citi equity. Hall is thought unlikely to go for this, however, as at present he receives cash compensation based on the performance of his unit, and would be loath to have his pay tied to Citi's overall performance and stock price. One insider told Here Is The City: 'It's like Obama agreeing to have his pay linked to the performance of the Democrats in the mid-term elections. It ain't gonna happen'.

And finally, over in France, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is calling for the G20 to place a ban on guaranteed bonuses. Ms Lagarde said in an interview with France Inter radio that 'it's imperative that we go further (in encouraging bank pay restraint)'.

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