Brussels, 03/09/2009 (Agence Europe) - In a joint letter dated Wednesday 2 September and addressed to the Swedish prime minister, Frederik Reinfeldt, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, British prime minister, Gordon Brown and French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, put pressure on their European and international partners to obtain an agreement at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh later this month on setting payment packages in the financial sector. The three leaders declared, “people are particularly shocked by the return of practices previously condemned, following tax payers' money being used in the worst period of the crisis to support the financial sector”. They are calling for the following principles to be transformed into national binding rules accompanied by sanctions on banks contravening the rules: improving governance through the creation of pay committees, increasing transparency by demanding banks provide information about their pay policies and take risks into account when working out pay. On this last point, the pay variable, including bonuses, should depend on the performance of the bank/team or individual and integrate positive negative developments. Pay should be staggered over an appropriate period. Sales of stock options should only be possible after a period previously decided on and the revised recommendation by the European Commission on bosses' pay was set at three years for this period (EUROPE 9892). German, British and French leaders are also proposing restrictions on the variable part of bank payouts, in proportion to total pay or depending on the income or profits of the bank. They also appealed for sanctions, as from March 2010, against jurisdictions that do not respect OECD standards on tax information exchange. (M.B./trans/rh)