European finance ministers lined up behind proposals to rein in bank bonuses as governments sought to forge a common stance on overhauling the financial system before a summit of the G-20 nations, Blo...

European finance ministers lined up behind proposals to rein in bank bonuses as governments sought to forge a common stance on overhauling the financial system before a summit of the G-20 nations, Bloomberg reported. "The bonus culture must come to an end," Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, whose nation currently holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters today as he arrived for a meeting of EU finance chiefs in Brussels. "The bankers are acting like it's 1999 and it's in fact 2009." French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has "firm proposals to put some order into the system of bonuses," she said in Brussels before the meeting. France will suggest curbing bonus pools as a percentage of a bank's revenue, imposing a ceiling on payments or taxing them, a Finance Ministry official told reporters yesterday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Aug. 31 that they would press fellow G- 20 leaders to regulate bank bonuses as well as require lenders to set aside more capital to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis that has caused global write downs and losses of $1.6 trillion. G-20 finance ministers meet in London on Sept. 4-5 before a Sept. 24-25 summit of leaders in Pittsburgh. A push by France and Germany to limit the size of banks and the bonuses they pay executives could set up a clash at several international meetings to be held this month, WSJ reported from Washington. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday "no bank must be allowed to get so big that it can get into a situation where it could blackmail governments," which some viewed as a push for limits on the size and complexity of global banks. Along with Ms. Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said nations should restrict bonuses to bankers and penalize traders for certain bad bets. Some critical details have yet to be fleshed out. For example, a cap on the size of banks could mean breaking up some of Europe's largest financial institutions, such as Deutsche Bank AG in Germany and BNP Paribas SA in France. The idea would likely be a nonstarter in China, home to several of the world's largest banks.