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Barclays gives £32m in shares to top managers Barclays gives £32m in shares to top managers
(about 4 hours later)
Barclays has further stoked the row over bankers' pay by handing out shares worth almost £32m to its top management team, including the under-fire chief executive Antony Jenkins.Barclays has further stoked the row over bankers' pay by handing out shares worth almost £32m to its top management team, including the under-fire chief executive Antony Jenkins.
Jenkins – who has insisted the bank had to pay higher bonuses to avoid a "death spiral" caused by a mass walkout of key staff – received shares worth almost £3.8m from bonuses handed him up to three years earlier. Jenkins – who has insisted the bank had to pay higher bonuses to avoid a "death spiral" caused by a mass walkout of key staff – received shares worth almost £3.8m from bonuses handed to him up to three years ago.
Comparisons with a year ago, when the bank incensed politicians by announcing £39.5m of bonuses on budget day, are difficult, as the individuals in the management team have changed dramatically. But the highest reward to one of the 12-strong executive committee was £8.8m for Skip McGee, who joined Barclays in New York when it took over the Wall Street operations of Lehman Brothers.
Rich Ricci, the head of the investment bank, was handed £17.6m a year ago, but has now left. Instead Barclays is making disclosures about the three bankers now running the investment bank and also promoted to the executive committee, which is one rung below the boardroom. McGee is running Barclays America and his pay is being disclosed for the first time. He one of the three Barclays investment bankers whose pay is being published following the departure of Rich Ricci, who was handed £17.6m a year ago.
Skip McGee, who joined Barclays in New York when it took over the Wall Street operations of Lehman Brothers, received £8.8m in shares while the two co-heads in London, Eric Bommensath and Tom King, were handed £8.6m and £3.8m respectively. Comparisons with a year ago – when the bank incensed politicians by announcing £39.5m of bonuses on budget day – are difficult, as the composition of the management team has changed dramatically and the share price has fallen from 308p to 232p.
A review of Barclays' investment banking operation is already under way and Jenkins is under pressure from shareholders to cut costs and stick to his pledge to reduce the proportion of revenues paid out to bankers. But the Robin Hood tax campaign for a tax on financial transactions said the payments "turn the stomach".
The payments to the 12 members of the executive committee relate to vested bonuses that are now due. They also include the first payments of new role-based pay, to get around the EU bonus cap, which restricts bonuses to 100% of salary – or 200% with shareholder approval. "It's a reminder we live in two-tier Britain where bankers pocket huge rewards come rain or shine and the rest of us pay to clear up their mess," said a spokesman for the campaign.
Promoted to the top job in 2012 after Bob Diamond was forced out in the wake of the Libor-rigging scandal, Jenkins is on track to be handed £950,000 a year in new role-based allowances. But, along with the new finance director Tushar Morzaria who received £1m of shares, he will have to wait until shareholders have voted on the allowances next month. The payments to the executive committee relate to vested bonuses that are now due. A total of 13.6m shares – more than the 12.7m last year – were released to the 12 members of the executive committee, which a year ago had nine members.
Jenkins waived his bonus for 2013 when the bank raised £5.8bn in a cash call to bolster its balance sheet. He has received £3.8m of shares and was awarded a further £4m which will pay out in the years ahead. Since Ricci's departure the investment bank has been run by two co-heads in London, Eric Bommensath and Tom King, who were handed £8.6m and £3.8m respectively.
All the directors sold enough shares to pay their tax liabilities. One, head of risk Robert Le Blanc, sold slightly more than this. Their long-term future at the bank is uncertain as a review of Barclays' investment banking operation is already under way, with Jenkins under pressure from shareholders to cut costs and stick to his pledge to reduce the proportion of revenues paid out to bankers.
Barclays' annual report published earlier this month revealed that 481 employees were paid more than £1m last year – up from 428 in 2012. Eight workers were handed more than £5m. However, more than half of the bank's total workforce of 140,000 earned less than £25,000. Investors will vote on the pay policies at next month's annual meeting and debate is already raging about whether to back the rewards, which Jenkins has argued are needed to retain top investment bankers. Robert Talbut, chief investment officer at Royal London Asset Management, has warned that the backlash against high pay could make it difficult for UK investment banks to survive in competition with the big US banks.
This year's payments also include the first tranches of new role-based pay, introduced to get around the EU bonus cap that restricts bonuses to 100% of salary, or 200% with shareholder approval.
Promoted to the top job in 2012 after Bob Diamond was forced out in the wake of the Libor-rigging scandal, Jenkins is on track to get £950,000 a year in new role-based allowances. But, along with the new finance director, Tushar Morzaria, who received £1m of shares, he will have to wait until shareholders have voted on the allowances next month.
Jenkins waived his bonus for 2013, when the bank raised £5.8bn in a cash call to bolster its balance sheet. But in addition to the latest release of £3.8m of shares, the bank's annual report published earlier this month said he also cashed in £5.2m of previous share awards and was awarded a further £4m that will pay out in the years ahead.
All the directors sold enough shares to pay their tax liabilities. The head of risk, Robert Le Blanc, sold slightly more than this.