Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC and of the British Bankers Association, has hit out at the inflated level and distorted structure of bankers' bonuses, predicting that pay-outs would in future be lower and more rationally calculated.

In a video interview with the Financial Times, published on the eve of the World Economic Forum's opening day in Davos, Mr Green said: “In banks' remuneration, there's been plenty of distortion. You've had bonuses paid off gross income, you've had bonuses paid off first-day [profits], you've had bonuses paid without any capital charge, and so you can see how that gives rise to the wrong and frankly inflated numbers [we've seen].”

Mr Green, a devout Christian, and author of Good Value, a book on the morals of banking through the ages, is visibly torn by the ethical dilemma on bankers' pay.