Pay package for Barclays CEO more than doubles to £10.5m

The pay of Barclays' chief executive more than doubled last year to £10.5m, as a rebound in investment banking and steady interest rates helped push up annual profits by almost a quarter.

- Kalyeena Makortoff

CS Venkatakrishnan's pay package rose from £4.6m in 2023 and is the highest paid to a Barclays CEO in a single year since Bob Diamond's controversial £17m pay package in 2011.

His pay jumped as a result of the vesting of long-term bonuses and a rise in the value of Barclays shares that make up those payouts, according to the bank's annual report.

Shareholders will be asked to give the green light to a new pay policy at this year's AGM that would cut Venkatakrishnan's salary but increase his potential bonus, giving him the chance to earn up to £14.3m a year.

Meanwhile, top-performing Barclays bankers will share a bonus pool worth nearly £1.9bn, up from £1.7bn a year earlier. That includes the £647m worth of bonuses shared between 832 so-called "material risk-takers" within its investment bank, who in total earned £1.2bn between them.

One unidentified banker took home more than €17m (£14m), a third more than the chief executive's pay packet, according to documents filed alongside the annual report.