Barclays chief Antony Jenkins gives up £2.8m bonus amid fines and funding hit

Antony Jenkins waives payout for second consecutive year, but can still pick up £4m worth of shares

Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins is to waive his annual bonus for a second-consecutive year, it emerged yesterday, but still stands to pick up £4m worth of shares from the scandal-ridden lender next month.

Mr Jenkins said that although 2013 was “a year of considerable positive change” at Barclays, the costs of dealing with legacy issues, fines from regulators and the fact it was forced into a £6bn rights issue by the City regulator, meant he would turn down the pay-out.

The 52-year-old, who replaced Bob Diamond as Barclays boss back in 2012 after the bank was fined £290m for rigging Libor, was on course to receive a bonus worth up to £2.75m or 250 per cent of his £1.1m salary. But he is still likely to be handed shares worth about £4m as part of a separate deferred bonus built up in previous years, according to the bank’s last annual report.

He said: “I am particularly proud of the progress we have made in starting to rebuild trust, in defining and implementing a common culture, in repositioning the business for the future, and in significantly improving our balance sheet.

“While all of these actions are in the long-term interests of our shareholders, I am aware of the very significant costs which have been required to address legacy litigation and conduct issues in 2013, as well as to exit assets and businesses we no longer wish to participate in.

“When combined with the substantial rights issue we completed in the autumn, I have concluded that it would not be right, in the circumstances, for me to accept a bonus for 2013.”

Barclays is currently in the process of overhauling its operations following years of scandal and controversy.

Reports last month indicated that the bank could close up to a quarter of its 1,600 branches over the next few years.

At the time, Barclays declined to confirm the stories but a senior source indicated that Mr Jenkins would not reveal how many branches might close when the bank announces its full-year results next week. He will, however, repeat his message that the rapid changes in retail banking, like smartphone apps, will inevitably lead to fewer branches.

Not all has been bad at the bank however, which acted as a book runner on more stock-market flotations than rivals including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup last year, according to figures from financial data company Dealogic.

Barclays’ £6bn rights issue last October also saw a 94.6 per cent take-up after the bank was ordered by the Prudential Regulation Authority to raise extra capital to meet its new 3 per cent leverage rules.