A culture of excess was quickly identified within banks which needed to be bailed out by taxpayers.
There was mounting public anger that investment bankers, whose reckless risk-taking helped take the global financial system to the brink of collapse, received extra performance payments while the rest of society were facing austerity.
The European Union has agreed on moves to slash the bonuses that may be paid to bankers, capping the payment at a year's salary - although there is a proviso the bonus could be doubled subject to majority shareholder support.
So has anything changed? Not much, particularly in the global banking world where the culture remains focused on meeting personal bonus targets rather than working for the good of the company in general.
But in Dunedin, new city council chief executive Sue Bidrose has made an encouraging start by severely curtailing the payment of cash bonuses to staff, amid concerns payments and gifts worth more than $2 million have been distributed unfairly.
Dr Bidrose told the Otago Daily Times the council has been moving away from the system of cash and non-cash bonuses for more than a year.
The decision, made by former chief executive Paul Orders, came after union representatives and senior managers became concerned the system was unfair.
Dr Bidrose says the bonuses felt a bit arbitrary, and whether you got a bonus as a staff member seemed to depend far more on the attitude of the manager to bonus- es rather than the work delivered.
Dr Bidrose is to be applauded at remaining on track to curb the arbitrary use of bonuses of staff at city hall. Stories abound in corporate life how bonuses change behaviour, and not always in a good way.
A former star quarterback of the New York Jets, Ken O'Brien, was said to have stopped passing the ball in situations where he should have, as soon as his team included a financial penalty in his contract for all interceptions.
The Sears Holding Corporation abolished a commission plan in its auto centres after its employees were discovered to have been persuading customers to authorise unnecessary car part replacements - damaging the firm's reputation.
The company's bonus plan had been based on a profit-sharing rule while mechanics benefited financially from every new component installed.
Public and private institutions, including local authorities, are often tempted to accept the unintended costs of financial incentive schemes in the hope the productivity increases will outweigh them. While this may be true in some cases, there are reasons to be cautious of using bonus compensation.
In the case of the city council, it seems the focus has swung towards ''appropriate remuneration'' for staff, and greater recognition within the organisation for individual examples of good work.
The council also had a more rigorous process of merit steps to reward staff, which saw a small number - fewer than 5% of all staff - awarded small salary increases.
After time already working within council walls, Dr Bidrose appears to understand the money being used for bonuses, to a select group of staff, comes from ratepayers, many of whom have struggled during the financial crisis.
Just because New Zealand as a whole has been relatively insu- lated from the global meltdown, that never meant individuals and families were immune from the harsh realities of austerity. Job losses have continued throughout the community.
Uncertainty around some jobs remains.
The Dunedin City Council has a problem of debt which must be repaid at some stage from a near-static number of ratepayers. Many ratepayers will feel the pain if rates continue to rise without some improvement in debt repayment or services delivered.
Changing the bonus system to one of paying council staff an appropriate amount of money for the duties they discharge is to be welcomed and applauded.
