Barclays Plc gave Robert Diamond as much as £10.1 million ($16.5 million) in salary, bonuses and stock, making him the United Kingdom’s top-paid bank chief executive officer as the government presses lenders to curb remuneration.
Diamond was awarded a £6.5-million bonus for 2010 and a further £2.25 million depending on the lender’s performance, London-based Barclays said in a statement today. His base salary will rise to £1.35 million from £250,000 after he became CEO on January 1.
The government is pushing banks to curb pay after it was forced to bail out the industry during the credit crisis and as it enacts the deepest-ever reductions in public spending. Diamond, 59, told lawmakers last month that his bank, which didn’t receive direct government aid, would exercise restraint when paying bonuses and that was time for firms to end “the period of remorse and apology” and start boosting confidence.
“Diamond tries to convince taxpayers that the era of remorse and regret within banking is over, yet he has no shame in pocketing a seven-figure bonus,” Unite trade union General Secretary Len McCluskey said in a statement today. “There is no possible justification for this highly paid individual taking home this enormous windfall.”
Biggest bonus
Diamond’s bonus exceeds those of his counterparts at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Lloyds Banking Group Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc. HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, paid CEO Stuart Gulliver a £2.9-million bonus for 2010, RBS awarded CEO Stephen Hester a £2-million all-stock bonus, Lloyds CEO Eric Daniels received £1.45-million.
Diamond’s bonus lags behind US competitors: Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, was awarded $17.4 million in restricted stock for 2010, according to a February 17 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the securities firm that set a Wall Street pay record in 2007, gave Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein a $12.6 million stock bonus for 2010.
John Varley, Diamond’s predecessor as CEO, received total compensation of £3.85 million, including a £2.2-million bonus, Barclays said.