Bonuses? Hand it over.

A coalition of consumer groups plans to ask bankers at five of Wall Street's largest firms to donate their year-end bonuses to a foreclosure prevention fund.

The coalition wants to highlight the role of investment banks in funding -- and thereby fueling -- the loose lending now resulting in record numbers of foreclosures.

In a new report (available here), the coalition argues that the boom in subprime lending was primarily driven by Wall Street's hunger for mortgages it could package as bonds and sell to investors -- and not by consumer demand for the high-risk loans.

The coalition, led by the Chicago-based National Training and Information Center, is targeting five banks with its request for holiday givebacks: Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. It estimates those banks will pay out $38 billion in bonuses this year, slightly more than the $36 billion they paid last year.

"Wall Street must do the right thing and forego their lavish bonuses to help families stay in their
homes. It's time they clean up their mess," Inez Killingsworth, an NTIC board member, said in a statement.

The banks, ironically, are under considerable pressure to increase bonuses this year despite mounting losses tied to the collapse of subprime lending. The fear is that prized employees -- the core asset of an investment bank -- could easily go somewhere else.