Lloyds set to announce 10 per cent increase in bonus pool

Ahead of the release of its full year results on Thursday, Lloyds Banking Group reached an agreement with UK Financial Investments (UKFI) regarding the amount of bonuses which it will be allowed to pay out. The lender will announce its intention to pay out just under £400m in bonuses, an approximately 10% increase over the prior year's figure, Sky News reported. That was in line with the recent awards at rival Barclays, but would almost certainly become a 'talking point' in the media.Admittedly, some analysts also took issue with the current level of investment bank compensation."Until we see evidence that absolute costs are falling, that fixed income-currency-and commodities income has stabilised and that investment bank compensation ratios are consistently under 40% we would expect the stock to remain in the sideways pattern [...] it has been in since early 2013," wrote Cannacord Genuity analyst Gareth Jones. More importantly for Lloyds perhaps, the news comes at a time when provisions for various kinds of financial mis-demeanours. Thus, Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets wrote on Wednesday: "We've seen these provisions increase quarter on quarter over the past few years with no evidence that we won't see more in the coming quarters either." Barclays Chief Executive, Antony Jenkins, justified the move by the need to retain talent in a competitive environment. Lloyds' boss Antonio Horta-Osorio, was set to receive an award of just under £2m in shares, deferred for five years.Furthermore, the stock would only vest if the share price was above 73.6p for a continuous period of six months or if the government is able to sell at least half of its remaining stake at a profit.The above amount was the price at which Lloyds was bailed out by taxpayers in 2008. AB