More Execs Forgo Bonuses

Bowing to the inevitable at last, Citigroup has now confirmed that CEO Vikram Pandit, chairman Sir Win Bischoff and senior adviser Robert Rubin will forgo their bonuses this year.

And Sir Win has told the BBC that bankers are partly to blame for the current financial crisis. He said on Radio 4's Today programme on New Year's Day: 'My view is that they are partly to blame. There are people who feel remorse about this......Do they all ? I don't know'. When asked to comment on the fact that former executives at UBS actually returned some of their previously-paid bonuses, Bischoff said: 'I'm not going to get into that. I think it's much more difficult in the Anglo-Saxon system' (Ed's note - where there's a will, there's a way, Sir Win.)'.

The Evening Standard reports that there is 'growing speculation' that Royal Bank of Scotland may sell some, or all, of its 4.3% stake in Bank of China as the 3-year lock-up has now expired. The stake is worth some $2.19bn. And Bloomberg reports that UBS has actually sold 3.4 billion shares in the Chinese bank. The $900m raised will be used to beef up the Swiss bank's balance sheet.

Finally, The Financial Times reports that investors pulled a net $320bn from mutual funds in 2008 - a record both in dollar terms and as a percentage of assets.

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