CS Venkatakrishnan, the chief executive of Barclays, could see his top salary rise by 45 per cent to £14.3 million under a pay adjustment being considered by the lender’s board.
The proposal would almost halve his fixed salary, from £2.95 million to £1.59 million, but allow him to receive annual and long-term bonuses worth eight times that new figure.
If approved, this will increase the Barclays chief executive’s remuneration from £9.8 million to £14.3 million. However, the bank would need a much higher “return on tangible equity” — a key profitability metric — than its current targets to trigger higher payouts.
Barclays has reportedly spoken to its major shareholders about shaking up pay structures for Venkatakrishnan and chief financial officer Anna Cross. The bank’s remuneration committee is expected to outline any formal plans in its annual report on February 13, along with a full-year earnings release, and put those plans to a shareholder vote.
The move comes amid a shake-up of the EU’s bonus cap, which previously limited bank bonuses to double bankers’ earnings. UK regulators lifted that limit by the end of 2023 to boost the City’s global competitiveness after Brexit, and Barclays became the first major bank to raise the fund for senior staff last year.
Last year, an unnamed institutional investor reportedly urged Barclays to lower executive pay rather than scrap the bonus cap. In response, the proposed reform may align compensation more closely with performance, while rewarding top employees more.
A Barclays spokesperson confirmed that the remuneration committee is in constant consultation with stakeholders and stressed that whether changes are made or not, any revised policy “will continue to focus on rewarding sustainable performance, closely aligned with the interests of shareholders”.
