Mr Cable said there were “different options” open to deal with bonuses Vince Cable has told the BBC that ministers are considering “potentially quite tough sanctions” against banks which give out large bonuses.
The business secretary said bankers should not walk away with “outrageously large sums” while others suffered due to a crisis caused by banking.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg also said the government would not “stand idly by” if “offensive” bonuses were handed out.
A bank levy set to raise £8bn over four years is due to start in January.
But Mr Cable and his party leader both suggested on Tuesday that the government could go further if banks paid out unreasonably high bonuses.
The business secretary was speaking during the Liberal Democrats’ conference in Liverpool, at a fringe event organised by BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
He said that, at the modest end of the scale, the government was looking at how to implement the Walker report into the corporate governance of UK banks, and force banks to disclose more information about bonus payments.
“At the other end of the scale, there are potentially quite tough sanctions in terms of tax policy,” he said, suggesting the government could look at a tax targeting high profits or a financial transactions tax.
Earlier he told the BBC it was not just Lib Dem ministers, but also Conservatives who were concerned and banks had to understand the government was serious and would not “stand back” if excessive bonuses were paid out at a time when others were struggling with “austerity”.
“I think it is very important that the banks understand that you cannot possibly award yourself ludicrous sky-high bonuses in an industry that has been bailed out by the taxpayer”
Nick Clegg
He said the government was looking at “different options” to try to change the banks’ behaviour on bonuses and said there was a combination of things that could be done – tougher regulation, forcing the banks to disclose more figures or “different kinds of tax as a disincentive” for banks to pay out big bonuses.
“I think it’s got to be a combination of those things and banks have got to understand… the government has a variety of mechanisms available.”
He said the temporary tax on bonuses brought in under the Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling had raised more than expected – but had not changed banks’ behaviour, which was something the government wanted to tackle.
BBC political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg said that a predicted bumper bankers’ bonus season could be politically very uncomfortable for the coalition partners. But it remained to be seen whether anything would be done, and whether the Treasury was as comfortable with the idea as Mr Cable was at the Lib Dem conference.
Earlier Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the government reserved the right to take “very serious action” on “unjustified bonuses”.
He said: “I think it is very important that the banks understand that you cannot possibly award yourself ludicrous sky-high bonuses in an industry that has been bailed out by the taxpayer when those same taxpayers are now having to make very serious sacrifices in their own lives.”
In his final pre-Budget report last year, Mr Darling unveiled a one-off tax on bank bonuses over £25,000, to be paid by the banks rather than individuals, which he said would raise £550m. In March he revealed it had actually raised £2bn.
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