Was meint Ihr, lohnt sich der einstig hier?

Now is not the time for the Bank of Ireland to be paying out bonuses, let along six-figure bonuses.

So when Ireland's finance minister, Brian Lenihan, found out about a $650,000 bonus awarded to an executive in the bank's asset management division, he was furious.

He's furious about the sum, and the fact he wasn't asked to approve the payout.

From the Irish Examiner,

Lenihan has demanded an explanation as to why the massive payment was made at a time when the bank is dependent on taxpayer funding to keep it afloat.

The compensation package was apparently part of a "guaranteed loyalty bonus," which is given to execs who stay with the company for several years. "[O]ther executives working in the same section were also paid bonuses, but the amounts involved were not on the same scale," the Sunday Business Post reported.

The bank says it did tell the finance ministry about the payout in documents given to Lenihan in March last year, when the goverment invested ~$4.6 billion in the bank.