Bob's Barclays bonanza of £120m... and, despite this, he's battling for a further £18m

Ousted CEO took home the sum over the past 5 years

Faces fight with bank for £18m in shares & bonuses

Bob Diamond has scooped around £120million from Barclays since the credit crunch began in 2007 and could be in line for tens of millions more, it emerged last night.

The bank’s fallen chief executive has taken home that extraordinary figure over the past five years in salary, bonuses, complicated incentive plans and share options.

But – as Mr Diamond negotiates his pay-off – it emerged last night that he faces a bitter battle to claim another £18million waiting in the wings from the bank. This is money ‘promised’ to him by Barclays in the form of share options and long-term incentive plans.

Golden goodbye: Bob Diamond is facing a battle with Barclays for an extra £18 million in share options and long-term incentive plans

The bank is expected to ‘fight tooth and nail’ to stop Mr Diamond receiving the £18million. But even if it wins that particular battle, he still owns around 13.2million shares in the bank. Last night, these shares were worth £22million.

He will also be automatically entitled to one year’s basic salary of £1.35million, meaning that, at the very least, he will walk away with more than £23million.

Mr Diamond’s pension entitlement is negligible because he has chosen to take cash instead.

The £120million figure was compiled by the influential Pensions and Investment Research Consultants. It is based on publicly available data submitted since 2007 which shows that the former chief executive regularly took home more than £20million a year. His most lucrative year was 2008 when he received £25.1million.

If he fights to keep the additional bonus money, it clears the way for another bloody battle, similar to that fought by Fred Goodwin, the former boss of Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mr Goodwin was due to receive a pension of £703,000 a year, but eventually volunteered to cut it to £342,500 after it brought such fury that he was forced to leave his home in Edinburgh.

Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott urged Barclays to tell Diamond 'Not a penny more, we will see you in court.'

Lord Oakeshott, the leading Lib Dem peer, said: ‘Barclays’ Quaker founders would be amazed at the level of cash pay outs over the past few years. Bob Diamond backed up his bonus truck to Barclays’ cash machines time after time while shareholders suffered. Now the board must show some fight at last and tell him, “Not a penny more – we will see you in court”.

‘He has had to resign in disgrace, trashed the Barclays brand, destroyed billions of shareholder value and done terrible reputational damage to the City of London as the world’s financial capital.’ Small shareholders have seen the value of their investment collapse during Mr Diamond’s short time as chief executive.

He became the overall boss of the bank on January 1 last year after being promoted from running its ‘casino’ investment banking division Barclays Capital.

In the past 18 months more than £12billion has been wiped off the value of the company.

Last night the UK Shareholders’ Association said the events at Barclays were ‘disturbing’.
Deborah Hargreaves, who runs the High Pay Centre, which campaigns for fair pay in the boardroom, said: ‘There are good grounds for clawing back his bonuses from previous years. He certainly does not deserve a payout for going given that he has presided over one of the biggest disasters in banking history.’

Barclays chairman Marcus Agius – who quit on Monday but will stay on until a successor to Mr Diamond is found – was questioned yesterday about Mr Diamond’s severance pay and £18million ‘promises’ but said nothing had been agreed.

The Treasury yesterday revealed a major crackdown on bank bosses, which could see them go to jail or be banned for life from working in top City jobs if they are ‘negligent’ in the future.