The boss of Barclays has been handed a huge increase in pay and bonuses taking his total package above £10 million. The high street bank’s chief executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan was awarded remuneration of £10.53 million for last year, up 127% from £4.64 million in 2023, latest accounts reveal. It means that his package was 182 times bigger than the £57,854 median pay for Barclays UK employees. In the previous year the CEO’s package was “only” 82 times more than the median.
Barclays said the huge increase in the boardroom to shop floor pay gap was due to the vesting of long term incentive payments knowns as LTIPs. In the report the bank’s remuneration committee said it was “satisfied that the single total figure for 2024 remuneration for the group chief executive, the total pay and fixed pay outcomes for UK employees, and the resulting pay ratios, reflect the application of the group's remuneration philosophy and are commensurate with experience of stakeholders.”.
The details came as Barclays revealed its profits jumped by a quarter last year thanks to a rebound in global investment and deal-making. It reported a pre-tax profit of £8.1 billion for 2024, a 24% leap from the £6.6 billion profit in 2023. Income for its investment bank shot up by 28% over the final quarter of the year. A breakdown of his remuneration package shows that Venkatakrishnan received base pay of £2.935 million, topped up by a bonus of £2.219 million, and LTIP payments worth £5.137 million.
He was also handed a cash pension top up of £147,000 and taxable benefits including private medical cover, life assurance, income protection, tax advice and the use of a company vehicle and driver valued at £95,000. However his base pay is being cut to £1.59 million this year in a rejig of his remuneration structure. It was also revealed today that Barclays boosted bonuses for its top investment bankers to an average of £778,000.
The high street lender paid £1.2 billion to 832 “material risk takers” within its investment bank, who make up the largest proportion of the 1,506 key staff across Barclays whose actions can impact the bank’s risk profile. Average bonuses for MRTs within Barclays investment bank were £777,884 last year up 21% compared on 2023. Fixed pay averaged £642,100 per head, bringing overall compensation to £1.5 million.
