TheChek News Flow

There is something suspect about people who change jobs too frequently—but some senior bankers have become more worried about this in the past year or two.

The fear is that staff can dodge responsibility for negligence or outright wrongdoing by jumping ship to a rival and having their unpaid bonuses bought out by a new employer, a regular practice in the battle for star bankers and traders.

The Bank of England wants to close this loophole in the U.K. by making new employers enforce punishments demanded by old employers. This could be a minefield for both sides, but shareholders should lend their support: it could help ensure banks don’t pay big signing-on fees for bad apples.

Postcrisis rules on pay were designed to change the balance of risks between individuals and banks. In most countries, bonuses are going to be paid over longer periods to give more time for bad behavior or poor risk management to come to light. And once awarded, bonuses can be stopped from vesting, or even demanded back.

When supposed stars are poached by rivals, their unvested bonuses will often be paid-out by the new employer. U.K. regulators want firms to honor the same terms on bonuses and potential clawback, rather than paying out upfront.

This will require cooperation between firms and demands that former employers don’t act vindictively against the disloyal. The regulator says banks will have to demonstrate fairness in seeking to punish former employees. And rightly those former employees would be able to challenge attempts to restrict their pay.

There is a danger that for both sides the process could involve too much cost and hassle to ever be effectively used. But shareholders should back the idea in the U.K. and elsewhere. Attempts to hold bankers to account through pay are undermined if serial job-hoppers can skirt the rules, leaving employers past and present bearing the risk.

Poachers should be gamekeepers, too.