Conservative leader David Cameron said that there should be no bonuses this year for senior staff at banks in which the Government holds a stake.
And bonuses in future years should be paid in shares in the banks which can be cashed in only when it has entirely repaid the support it has received from the taxpayer, said Mr Cameron.
He was speaking after reports that Lloyds Banking Group, which is 43% state-owned, is planning to pay out £120 million in bonuses for 2008 - a year in which its HBOS subsidiary made estimated losses of £10 billion.
News of the planned pay-out came just a week after it emerged that RBS, which received £20 billion in state support, was planning to pay bonuses totalling £1 billion.
Lloyds refused to confirm the scale of the planned bonuses, but said that the majority of staff getting them will be relatively-low paid workers in retail branches who typically receive £1,000 or less.
Mr Cameron said that he had no objection to bonuses of £1,000-£2,000 to low-ranking employees who have met targets and do not share the blame for the current financial crisis.
But the Tory leader told BBC1's The Politics Show: "For these banks that are owned by the taxpayer, or where the taxpayer has a large stake, it is completely wrong to be paying bonuses."
Mr Cameron said he raised the issue with Gordon Brown at the time of the banking bail-out in October, but the Prime Minister had been "asleep on the job".
His announcement of a year-long review of the system meant bonuses would probably be paid out not only for 2008 but for 2009 as well, said the Tory leader.
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"People who work hard and have paid their taxes are seeing billions of pounds of taxes go into these banks and yet large bonuses are still being paid. That's just wrong," he said. "I wouldn't deny the teller in a bank the £1,000 or £2,000 bonus if they have a modest salary... What I am talking about is bonuses to the board, to senior executives, to big traders, to big money earners. That's completely wrong."
