King: Goldman bonus plan "depressing" Sir Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, on Tuesday stepped up the pressure on Goldman Sachs, sharply criticising the bank for considering delaying bonus payment dates to benefit from falling tax rates. "I find it a bit depressing that people who earn so much find it would be even more exciting to adjust their payouts to benefit from the tax rate, knowing that this must have an impact of the rest of society, which is suffering most from the consequences of the financial crisis," Sir Mervyn told MPs. I think it would be a rather clumsy and lacking in care and attention to how other people might react. And in the long run, financial institutions do depend on goodwill from society," he told the Treasury select committee. Goldman is said to be considering delaying the payment of deferred bonuses from 2009 to 2011 until after April 6 to take advantage of the fall in the top tax rate from 50p to 45p. Sir Mervyn made his comments at a hearing focused mostly on the stability of UK banks. At that same hearing, two external members of the Financial Policy Committee sounded an alarm on bank safety, calling for tighter regulation of overall bank borrowing than the global rules contemplate. Both Robert Jenkins, a former investment manager, and Michael Cohrs, a former head of investment banking at Deutsche Bank, told the Treasury select committee that banks should be forced to hold top quality capital equal to more than 4 per cent of their total balance sheets. Currently, the Basel III global rules contemplate a so-called "leverage ratio" of only 3 per cent, starting no sooner than 2018. I like the concept of leverage because it is another way of making banks more resilient. The leverage ratio is very important, I think 3 per cent is too low," Mr Cohrs said. Sir Mervyn did not offer an opinion on the size of the leverage ratio but said the UK would have preferred the rules to take effect sooner than 2018. "I regard the leverage ratio as absolutely key," he said. Critics of the Basel III agreement, including Andrew Haldane of the BoE and Thomas Hoenig of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, have called for tougher leverage ratios as a way of preventing bankers from tinkering with their risk models to reduce their overall capital requirements. At the hearing, the regulators acknowledged that Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group would need to raise substantial new capital or sell off chunks of their businesses in the near future. UK banks are being forced to hold more capital against eurozone risks, losses on commercial property and expected regulatory penalties for the payment protection insurance and Libor scandals. The Bank of England said last autumn that the industry might need as much as £50bn. Sir Mervyn refused to be drawn on specific capital amounts for RBS and Lloyds, but Mr Cohrs said: "It's a big number."