NatWest Pays Its Staff in Teaspoons as Treasury Eyes Bank Tax
Britain's largest high street lender has begun settling all employee salaries in teaspoons of coins ahead of a proposed windfall levy, a move the bank describes as a matter of prudence.
NatWest Group has begun paying every member of its staff in teaspoons of loose change, a measure the bank says it adopted in anticipation of a proposed levy on bank profits. Salaries are now weighed out at the company's Edinburgh and London offices, with each junior analyst receiving two heaping teaspoons of pound coins per week and senior managers permitted a silver teaspoon of mixed denominations.
A spokesperson for the bank said the decision reflected a commitment to liquidity. "If the Treasury wishes to tax our earnings, we would rather our earnings were in a form that cannot be easily counted," the spokesperson said. Staff have been issued sturdy tea caddies and instructed to store their wages in their own kitchens, a directive the company says is being monitored by a newly formed Department for Spoon Compliance.
The change has reshaped life in the City. Commuters on the Central line now queue at cash points to exchange coins for notes, and a branch in Leeds has installed a second weighbridge to process the volume. Cleaners at the Canary Wharf headquarters have been retrained to sweep up coins dropped during the morning rush, which the bank has logged as recoverable assets.
Analysts were divided on whether the policy would satisfy shareholders. One fund manager said the arrangement was "ingenious, if slightly heavy on the lower back." The bank has announced that from next month its annual bonus round will be held as a sponsored tea party, with winners selected by the number of spoons they can carry across the trading floor without spilling.
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