Barclays pay pot for top execs swells to £1.6bn despite profit plunge but Jes Staley takes £2m pay cut
Up to 21 Barclays executives earned more than CEO Jes Staley last year after he took a £2m total pay cut as profits plummet at the bank.
Staley saw his total pay fall 32 per cent to £4.01m after his annual bonus halved from £1.6m to £843,000.
Barclays annual report discloses three employees were paid more than £6m while eight were paid between £5m and £6m, down from 11 in 2019. With ten in the £4m-£5m bracket it suggests around 20 Barclays employees were paid more than Staley.
Of those employees earning over £1m, 59 per cent are based in the US and just 33 per cent in the UK.
The total bonus pot for Barclays staff ent up six per cent last year to £1.6bn.
Barclays reported a 30 per cent drop in pre-tax profit to £3.1bn in 2020 after setting aside £4.8bn for bad loans amid the pandemic.
It was offset by a strong performance by the investment bank, which benefited from a surge in trading volumes early in the year. Income rose 22 per cent to £12.5bn, accounting for more than half the bank’s income.
Overall 27,446 employees were paid under £25,000 with chief executive pay 90 times the median pay ratio, down from 140 times the previous year.
The median UK employee saw a seven per cent hike in fixed pay but this did not help to offset annual bonuses falling 16 per cent.
Despite the dismal performance, the banking giant announced it will resume dividends after profit suffered a less severe hit than expected. Barclays shareholders are in line for an annual dividend of 1 pence per share with the bank also announcing a £700m share buyback.