International banking giant Barclays has revealed that it has frozen £22m of bonus share awards made to its former boss Jes Staley while an investigation into his relationship with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is ongoing.
Following the publication of the Barclay's 2021 annual report, the company revealed it has suspended Mr Staley's unvested long-term bonus share awards pending a regulatory probe by UK financial watchdog Financial Conduct Authority.
Staley left the bank last November after the FCS began a probe into his links to the dead sex trafficker Epstein. Staley is contesting the City regulators' findings, but Barclays has announced that in the meantime it is freezing long-term bonus and share payments for Mr Staley.
Staley's share awards that have been suspended are worth nearly £22m based on Barclays' share price, as at Wednesday February 23, 2022.
Staley still receives his contractual entitlement to £2.4m in cash and shares - the equivalent of 12 months in fixed pay - as well as a pension allowance and other undisclosed benefits.
Suspend
The bank said in a statement: "In line with its normal procedures, the committee exercised its discretion to suspend the vesting of all of Mr Staley's unvested awards, pending further developments in respect of the regulatory and legal proceedings related to the ongoing Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulatory Authority investigation regarding Mr Staley."
Barclays revealed that pre-tax profits soared to £8.4 billion in 2021 after it released cash set aside for pandemic loan losses and notched up record investment banking earnings.
The UK domiciled lender more than doubled profits from £3.1bn in 2020 thanks to the release of £653 million in bad debt provisions, compared with £4.8 billion set aside for Covid loan losses the previous year.
The results also showed that the group's corporate and investment banking division recorded its highest-ever pre-tax profits of £5.8 billion over the year, up from £4 billion in 2020.
'Proud'
C. S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays Group Chief Executive, said: "I am proud that we have delivered this resilient performance while continuing to support our clients and customers through another year of COVID-19 related challenges.
"Taken together, our 2021 performance has enabled us meaningfully to increase returns to our shareholders, with £2.5 billion of excess capital returned via a total dividend of 6.0 pence per share and £1.5 billion of announced share buybacks.
"Looking ahead into 2022, we are focussed on delivering consistent performance and returns across our businesses, supported by robust management of our balance sheet, costs and controls. We recognise that the economic environment is more than usually uncertain, with rising inflation rates and tighter monetary policy, while many parts of society continue to recover from the severe social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."
Group Finance Director
In the statement Barclays also revealed that Tushar Morzaria has decided to retire as Group Finance Director and as an Executive Director of Barclays PLC and Barclays Bank PLC, in each case with effect from 22 April 2022. He will be succeeded by Anna Cross, currently Deputy Group Finance Director, who will take up the role of Group Finance Director subject to regulatory approval
