Barclays CEO set for potential 45% pay hike to more than £14m

CS Venkatakrishnan, chief executive of Barclays, could see his maximum pay rise by 45 per cent to £14.3 million under a pay overhaul being considered by the lender’s board.

The proposal would reduce his fixed salary nearly by half, from £2.95 million to £1.59 million, but allow him to earn annual and longer-term bonuses worth up to eight times that new figure.

If approved, this would increase the Barclays chief’s maximum pay package from £9.8 million to £14.3 million. However, the bank would require a significantly higher “return on tangible equity” — a key profitability metric — than its current targets to trigger the top payouts.

Barclays has reportedly approached its biggest shareholders about shaking up the pay structures for both Venkatakrishnan and finance chief Anna Cross. The bank’s remuneration committee is expected to outline any formal plans in its annual report on 13 February, alongside the release of full-year earnings, and then put those plans to a shareholder vote.

The move comes amid a shift away from the EU’s bonus cap, which once limited bank bonuses to twice a banker’s salary. UK regulators scrapped that limit in late 2023 to boost the City’s global competitiveness post-Brexit, and Barclays was the first major bank to lift the cap for senior staff last year.

Last year, an unnamed institutional investor reportedly urged Barclays to cut executives’ fixed salaries rather than simply scrapping the bonus cap. In response, the proposed revamp would potentially align variable compensation more closely with performance, while still offering top staff a higher maximum reward.

A Barclays spokesperson confirmed that the remuneration committee regularly consults stakeholders and emphasised that whether or not changes are introduced, any updated policy “will continue to focus on rewarding sustainable performance, and close alignment with shareholders’ interests”.

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Barclays CEO set for potential 45% pay hike to more than £14m