A set of “tough pay regulations” are to be introduced which will see UK banks forced to publish the number of employees earning more than £1 million per year, according to a recent report.

How can anyone within the banking industry, particularly in light of what has transpired over the last 24 months possibly try to justify such a salary? It’s obscene that people can ear this sort of money and oversee a regime that penalises the man (or woman) in the street struggling by on National Minimum Wage!

Isn’t it about time something was done about this disparity and the outrageous profiteering by certain sectors of our society? If a bank fails, do we then start charging the fat cats for the losses? If they get such outlandish bonuses and salaries for allegedly producing bumper profits, then surely by the same token they should be penalised when they do not?

The Walker Review, published by Sir David Walker, is also proposing to provide the Financial Services Authority (FSA) the powers to curb any pay deals in the banking sector that it deems to be excessive. About time too!

The Government said it will now move to implement Sir David Walker’s proposals. The question here has to be, why has it taken so long to come to their senses over the matter?

In a statement, Chancellor Alistair Darling, said: “Sir David’s proposals are the blueprint for how banks must be run in the future… The Government strongly supports his recommendations and will take steps to implement them as soon as possible.”

In addition, banks will have to limit the minimum bonus deals of senior staff to just one year, under new FSA rules coming into force at the start of next year.

In his report, Sir David said: “The fundamental change needed is to make the boardroom a more challenging environment than it has often been in the past.

“This requires non-executives able to devote sufficient time to the role in order to assess risk and ask tough questions about strategy,” added Sir David.

However, the new rules will no doubt be met with criticism from the UK’s banks since Sir David’s original proposals on remuneration met with a deluge of complaints from the City.

As Lord Acton was famously quoted as saying, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." The rot needs to stop now and we must restore some sense of sanity to an insane system. From the corridors of Whitehall to the boardroom at Lloyds TSB and everywhere in between this holds true.

More needs to be done, especially in the new era of the nationalised banking fraternity to ensure the public get value for money from the services we are paying for. There needs to be more accountability, more responsibility and a whole lot less greed at the top.

Why should the British tax payer subsidise the lifestyles of these “Fat cats” that have leeched the system dry and killed the “goose the laid the golden egg?”