Bonuses, longer-term incentives, free housing and meals, a mobile phone and a set of wheels are becoming standard perks.

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But he would point out - and his fellow directors would agree - that he is already in the bottom quartile, and probably in the bottom decile, in respect of the pay, bonuses and other longer-term incentives he receives for managing a bank of RBS's size, international spread and complexity.

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Not considered are the longer-term benefits wrought by basic incentives.

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He also suggested creating pay incentives to make fund managers focus on longer-term returns.

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The first is that the trigger for incentives (as well as the payments themselves) need to be longer-term in nature.

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