Shame of bank that paid £170million a year in bonuses: Barclays staff 'lost all sense of humility' says report

Barclays accused of fostering a 'winning at all costs' culture

Chairman Sir David Walker said report made for 'uncomfortable reading'

Arrogant investment bankers at Barclays thought they were immune from the ‘ordinary rules’ of society, a withering independent report concluded yesterday.
The scandal-hit lender has been accused of fostering a ‘winning at all costs’ culture and deserting its values in the relentless pursuit of growth.
Huge bonuses lavished on investment bankers helped some ‘lose all sense of proportion and humility’, the report said.

Scandal-hit: Barclays has been accused of fostering a ¿winning at all costs¿ culture and deserting its values in the relentless pursuit of growth

The staggering largesse of Barclays was also made clear. Between 2002 and 2009, 60 investment bankers shared average long-term performance-related bonuses totalling £170million every year – or just under £3million a year each over the period, according to the report.
This came on top of their salaries, annual bonuses and other benefits.
A tendency to push the rules to the limit was epitomised by its controversial tax avoidance unit – the Structured Capital Markets division – which generated an income of more than £1billion a year for the bank between 2007 and 2010, the report said.

 

This division is being shut down by new chief executive Antony Jenkins as part of efforts to restore the lender’s bruised reputation.
The independent report, spearheaded by veteran lawyer Anthony Salz, was commissioned in the wake of Barclays’ £290million fine last summer for rigging crucial Libor interest rates.
But it also looked at a long list of scandals that have dogged the lender, from mis-selling payment protection insurance to customers, to its £7.7million fine in 2011 for duping elderly savers into gambling their nest-eggs in risky stockmarket investments.

Mr Salz, the vice chairman of investment bank Rothschild, called for a raft of changes including stricter curbs on pay and better treatment of customers.
Barclays chairman Sir David Walker said the 236-page document, which cost the bank almost £18million in fees, made ‘for uncomfortable reading in parts’.
He added: ‘That is bound to be the case when one asks for an independent examination of this kind, and we must learn from the findings.’

Under scrutiny: The report focuses heavily on bumper awards paid out under former chief executive Bob Diamond, pictured

The report focused heavily on the bumper awards dished out to Barclays’ investment bankers under disgraced former chief executive Bob Diamond, who was promoted to the top job at the start of 2011 after running the investment bank for years.
Mr Diamond amassed more than £100million in pay and perks between 2005 and his resignation in July last year following the interest rate-rigging scandal.
The report said the six and seven-figure packages regularly handed out at the investment bank, Barclays Capital, ‘contributed significantly to a sense among a few that they were somehow unaffected by the ordinary rules’.
It added: ‘A few investment bankers seemed to lose a sense of proportion and humility.’
Mr Diamond was feted at Barclays for turning Barclays Capital into a global giant after joining in 1996.
But the report said the lender’s rapid expansion across a number of divisions in the years up to the financial crisis produced ‘cultural challenges’.
It became increasingly dominated by the investment bank’s winning ‘at all costs’ culture.
The report said: ‘Winning at all costs comes at a price: collateral issues of rivalry, arrogance, selfishness and a lack of humility and generosity.’
It added: ‘We believe a culture developed within Barclays, quite possibly derived originally from the investment bank, which came across to some as being ‘‘clever’’ or what some people have termed ‘‘too clever by half’’, even arrogant and aggressive.’