Barclays executives receive 16 5m bonus

Barclays has revealed that its executives received £16.5 million in shares.

The British banking giant explained that the payment, shared between 11 executives, was for role-based allowances and bonus schemes. The was a significant decrease on the 2014 figure of £32 million, which at the time sparked major criticism over excessive payouts when the bank had seen a drop in profits.

According to a regulatory filing, Tom King, head of Barclays investment bank, was the top paid executive receiving £4.7 million worth of shares. Anthony Jenkins, the bank's chief executive, was handed £4.3 million, the first time he took a bonus in three years. The remaining nine members were awarded three million shares priced at £2.535 on the day paid out.

The announcement comes at a time where Barclays is in the midst of an investigation over alleged manipulation foreign exchange rates. Earlier in the month, the bank said it was increasing its provision to cover any fallout from the probe by £750 million to £1.25 billion.

Barclays' revelation of bonuses saw share prices grow slightly and as of 10:06 GMT on Wednesday (March 18th) they were up 0.56 per cent.

Faltering profits

It has not been a good month for Barclays, which announced at the beginning of March that profits were down by 21 per cent to £2.26 billion in 2014. However, once the provisions for the investigation and additional charges were considered, Barclays' adjusted profits increased 12 per cent to £5.5 billion.

Speaking in an interview with BBC business editor Kamal Ahmed, Mr Jenkins said: "If we look at the history of many of these conduct issues… they have been very bad for the industry, very bad for shareholders, and very bad for customers. It's just not acceptable."