France To Curb Bonuses As Public Outrage Grows

EMMA VANDORE

PARIS (AP) — France will limit or ban bonuses and stock options for executives at companies bailed out with taxpayer money, an official announced Thursday, as the government scrambled to calm public outrage at what some see as the greed that caused the global financial crisis.

The French government plans to issue a decree next week "fixing the conditions under which stock options and bonuses are forbidden in companies which have benefited from state aid," according to a television interview with Claude Gueant, President Nicolas Sarkozy's chief of staff.

The French decree, which does not require parliamentary approval, would be effective immediately, Gueant said.

The measures are a response to rising discontent at executives cashing in bonus checks even as their companies are rescued with billions of euros (dollars) in public funds.

In the United States, similar anger is being directed at insurance giant American International Group Inc., whose executives received $165 million in bonuses after the company was kept afloat by $170 billion in bailout money.

Some French and American executives are responding to the public outcry by handing back their benefits.