FORMER BARCLAYS chief executive Bob Diamond, who is still on the payroll, is to give up £20 million worth of share options and accept a £2 million payoff – equal to one year’s pay – once he quits.
Following days of negotiations, the US banker, who was paid £17 million last year and more than £100 million since 2005, has accepted he cannot hold on to the unvested deferred bonus and long-term incentive share options.
He will get a year’s pay, even though his contract specifies a six-month payoff, while he remains on Barclays’ books to help with the transition to a new chief executive.
“Consistent with his contract of employment, Mr Diamond will receive up to 12 months’ salary, pension allowance and other benefits, and he has agreed to forgo his contractual entitlement to tax equalisation,” said the board of Barclays in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.
British prime minister David Cameron said the move was a sign that Barclays understands public concerns.
“It is my hope that my decision to step down, and today’s agreement on my remuneration, will help close this chapter and allow Barclays to move forward and prosper,” said Mr Diamond.
He lost his job after Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King issued a diktat during talks last weekend when, despite everything, most of the board believed Mr Diamond could survive.
It emerged yesterday that the Financial Services Authority had been scathing about the bank’s culture four months ago, believing that Barclays consistently pushed matters to the edge.
MPs are furious with Mr Diamond, believing that a letter released by the FSA yesterday morning, as Barclays chairman Marcus Agius readied to appear before the Commons inquiry, gave the lie to Mr Diamond’s declarations that relations with the regulator were satisfactory.
Chairman of the treasury select committee, Conservative MP Andy Tyrie, said Mr Diamond had been “economical with the truth”.
