As this open letter reminds us, paying (and receiving) a decent bonus is in the interest of everybody.

Dear [CEO of Major Investment Bank],

I am increasingly concerned by headlines I see across the papers about bonuses in the City being up to 50% down in 2008.

Arguably we are only halfway through the year, but I think this milestone is the right occasion to address you, the person heading up this fantastic corporation I am glad to call my employer.

Times have not been easy recently, and with my former department being effectively closed down as a consequence of the credit crunch, I do not want to pretend that we have a lot of profit to show for.

Nevertheless, I think that there are numerous, overriding macro-economic reasons why bonuses should at least remain on the level they were last year, if not even slightly higher.

Allow me to outline a few of them to support my case:

• With many of us paying taxes in the highest tax band, 40% of all bonuses go directly to the government. This means that, for example, every 60,000 GBP in bonuses immediately enables the state to pay an entire year's salary for an NHS nurse. As such, the banking industry could really be referred to as Key Worker Funding. And since my last bonus paid for more nurses than I saw when my wife gave birth earlier this year, I consider this a net contribution to society.
• If the bonuses make us feel the pinch too badly, we might revert back to using Tubes and buses rather than black cabs.  And without any incentive to work longer hours than the general public, this increased traffic would strain a public transport system that is already operating at its very limit.
• The property market is in desperate need of stabilisation. Disposable cash would enable us to extend our buy-to-let property portfolios by taking properties off the hands of those suffering from credit crunch-induced interest rate hikes. Since we created the problem, it's only fair to endow us with the means to deal with the consequences.
• And finally, many of us might even take to staying in for dinner, and using the time to iron our own shirts and clean our own houses. The impact on the service industry would be significant.

I hope the above list of reasons makes you reconsider any decision that has or has not been taken about the bonus pool that will be allocated for this year. Despite overall profits not looking promising, I believe there is a lot of room to alter valuations of illiquid assets that our bank holds in order to squeeze some cash out of an overall healthy balance sheet.

I and my colleagues, along with the entire UK economy, thank you in advance for your consideration.

Yours sincerely,

[Devout Employee of Major Investment Bank]

Here Is The Writer : Square Mylo

Square Mylo came to London with the intention of staying six months and never left. He has worked in Canary Wharf and in the Square Mile, but still maintains a clear conscience since he's never worked in Mayfair. Being a banker is his true calling. Maybe he should have listened more closely.

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