Incentive awards at Barclays inched down in 2016 despite bumper profits
Barclays revealed today that its incentive pay pool shrank in 2016, despite revealing its pre-tax profits had almost trebled.
The banking giant shelled out £1.5bn in incentive payments for the year, down one per cent on 2015.
However, the lender's headcount also plummeted during the year, as part of its large-scale restructuring scheme. While the bank had 129,400 permanent employees in 2015, that figure dropped eight per cent to 119,300 in 2016.
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However, the lender has also been on a mission to scale back on bonuses for a number of years. The 2016 incentive pool is 56 per cent lower than 2010's, when it stood at £3.5bn.
Meanwhile, chief executive Jes Staley was awarded an annual bonus of £1.3m and a total remuneration package worth £4.2m. Although this is significantly boosted from the zero bonus and £277,000 remuneration the banking boss was granted the year before, Staley only took up his role in December 2015, explaining the vast difference in figures.
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Staley's annual bonus for 2016 was 60 per cent of the maximum he could have been handed. In particular, the chief exec was docked for failing to meet certain financial targets and for the bank's less-than-stellar reputation for conduct. However, the remuneration committee praised the quality of Staley's leadership to date.