Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    BRUSSELS, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Dutch financial services group ING has called on its senior managers to give back their bonuses for 2008, Dutch daily De Volkskrant reported Monday.

    ING Chief Executive Officer Jan Hommen said he had made a "moral appeal" to the top 1,200 employees to return their variable bonuses earned last year.

    Some managers seemed to be willing to do so, but he has no idea how many actually will, Hommen said.

    There has been growing criticism from both politicians and the public in the country over the banks which have been bailed out by the government but are still paying bonuses to their staff.

    ING paid 300 million euros (about 409 million U.S. dollars) in bonuses to about 40,000 staff members last year. However, it posted a net loss of 729 million euros (about 996 million dollars)for 2008 and has planned 7,000 job cuts.

    Since last autumn, the company has received a 10-billion-euro (13.7-billion-dollar) capital injection from the Dutch treasury and government guarantees on its toxic mortgage loans of up to 22 billion euros (30 billion dollars).

    Last week, ING decided to give its new chief financial officer Patrick Flynn 100,000 company shares as a golden hello, causing many raised eyebrows.

    The shares, currently worth 400,000 euros (546,000 dollars), are on top of a salary of 650,000 euros (887,900 dollars).

    The bank is not planning to pay any bonuses this year, Hommen said. Instead, it is working on a new bonus system for this year.

    Future bonuses will only be paid if the bank's overall profits have increased, he added.

    "We will only pay variable bonuses when we have drawn up a new policy on payment," Hommen said, "But only when the ING group is back in the red."