[Quote:]

A political row erupted on Thursday in France as banks began to hand out huge staff bonuses, just months after their state bail-out and while job losses mounted in the struggling real economy.

[..]

French bankers are worried that they could lose talented staff to US and British competitors if they are forced to cut back on performance-related bonuses more severely than their international rivals.

In other words: the other banks have started stealing again, so we need to steal as well or we’ll lose all our thieves to the competition.