Standard to pay out £750m in bonuses

The London-based group, which avoided state support during the crisis, is paying 750m in bonuses for its 2009 performance, with 39m earmarked for the Treasury under Chancellor Alistair Darling's bonus tax.

Most of the bonus pool will benefit overseas workers in regions such as Asia and Africa, as the bank only has around 2,000 of its 75,000 staff in the UK.

Standard – which has signed a deal to sponsor Premiership football club Liverpool – acknowledged the furore over mega-payouts but added that competition for talented employees is "both international and red hot".

The firm said it took a "global perspective" on pay policy, while its proportion of revenues paid out in salary had fallen for the past two years. It added: "We pay for good performance and we do not reward failure."

Standard chief executive Peter Sands also warned against over-regulating the sector and starving the real economy of credit.

He said: "We should also accept that, however good the rules, they will not make up for poor management or supervision."

Despite a 51 per cent rise in bad debts to two billion dollars (1.3bn), the group enjoyed strong momentum in its investment banking business, which has expanded organically and through acquisitions.