Champagne in Canary Wharf as Barclays profits more than double to £8.4bn but Jes Staley’s bonus suspended
Barclays has revealed pre-tax profits soared to £8.4bn in 2021 as it released cash set aside for pandemic loan losses and notched up record investment banking earnings.
The banking giant more than doubled profits from £3.1bn in 2020 thanks to the release of £700m in bad debt provisions, compared with £4.8bn set aside for Covid loan losses the previous year.
First female finance director
Barclays also announced its first female finance director, appointing deputy group finance director Anna Cross to the role from April.
She will succeed Tushar Morzaria, who is retiring after more than eight years in the post, and becomes the first woman to hold one of the top three boardroom jobs at the bank.
Jes Staley
Barclays also said in its annual report that it has suspended all of former chief executive Jes Staley’s unvested long-term bonus share awards pending a regulatory investigation into his relationship with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The group said almost 70% of these share awards granted since he was appointed in 2015 remain unvested.
Mr Staley stepped down last November to contest findings by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority over the way he represented his relationship with Mr Epstein to the bank.
He still receives his contractual entitlement to £2.4 million in cash and shares – the equivalent of 12 months in fixed pay – as well as a pension allowance and other undisclosed benefits.