Citi and Bank of America have already been hit hard in the recruitment wars. The fact that they still cannot repay their TARP funds carries enough of a stigma, to be sure. But now there are new pay rules--from the G20, the new pay czar and elsewhere--that might make it even tougher for them to compete for top talent.

Bloomberg suggests that G20 "standards barring bonus guarantees for more than one year and requiring deferred pay for top executives would take recruitment tools away" from the banks at the worst time. To be sure, a lot of banks like Goldman Sachs have already embraced these guidelines. But the thought is that Citi and Bank of America need to be able to offer really lucrative packages to attract the top talent. We'll see how this shakes out. 

For more:
- here's the Bloomberg article

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