Sacked Barclays boss awarded bonus

The high street lender awarded the ex-chief executive an annual bonus of £505,000 in a total package worth £3.4m for 2015.

Confirmation of the pay-out came as it said underlying pre-tax profits fell 2 per cent to £5.4bn for 2015 as it took a further £1.45bn charge for payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling.

Shares in the bank plunged as much as 11 per cent – seeing trading in the stock temporarily suspended for the second time in less than a month – on news that it would slash the total dividend payment from 6.5p in 2015 to 3p for the next two years.

It also announced a major group-wide shake-up, splitting the bank into two divisions – Barclays UK and Barclays Corporate and International – and selling down its 62.3 per cent stake in its Africa business.

The bank said it awarded staff bonuses – including other incentives – of £1.7bn for 2015, down from £1.9bn the year before.

This included £976m in bonuses across its investment banking business, down from £1bn in 2014. But it said £661m of bonuses for 2015 across the group were deferred, while the investment bank deferred £579m of its awards for the year.

Barclays said it was splitting the group into two divisions as part of ring-fencing rules to separate riskier investment banking from retail banking.