Litigation claims cause Barclays CEO to refuse 2013 bonus in best interest of bank
Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins has taken responsibility for the carelessness spending of the bank and said he will forego his 2013 bonus, acknowledging continued costs on the bank.
February 04, 2014 at 04:31 AM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Law.com
While financial institutions are finally beginning to bounce back from the economic downtown, some banks can stand to be a little more cautious when it comes to how they spend their money.
Take the Barclays for example, the second largest bank in the U.K. that was charged 330 million pounds (almost $450 million) for regulatory penalties and lawsuits in Q4 of 2013. According to a recent Bloomberg Business Week report, regulators are investigating Barclays for the possible manipulation of foreign-exchange markets and after the bank is reviewing its trading over a “several-year” period.
Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins has taken responsibility for the carelessness spending of the bank and said he will forego his 2013 bonus, acknowledging that regulatory penalties and lawsuits have continued to impose costs on the bank after it raised 5.8 billion pounds ($9.5 billion) from shareholders.
“I am aware of the very significant costs which have been required to address legacy litigation and conduct issues in 2013, as well as to exit assets and businesses we no longer wish to participate in,” Jenkins said in a statement.
Jenkins isn't the first leader of a bank to take the fall for negative implications on spending in a financial institution. Just this past August, Ross McEwan, CEO of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, said he wouldn't take a bonus for 2013, as the U.K. government-owned lender faces its biggest pretax loss since 2008. On the other hand, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was granted a 74 percent raise to $20 million last year, bringing his pay closer to where it stood before he was penalized for faulty oversight of botched derivatives bets.
Last year, Jenkins noted that he is working to remove 1.7 billion pounds of annual costs by 2015. One strategy that has become apparent in the last couple of months is by eliminating jobs at its corporate bank. The lender plans to cut hundreds of jobs including directors and managing directors at its investment bank in order to cut back on costs this year.
According to Business Week, Barclays is also being probed over whether it properly disclosed 322 million pounds of payments to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund as part of a 7 billion-pound fundraising during the financial crisis. The bank was fined 290 million pounds for Libor manipulation in 2012, which led to the departure of then-CEO, Robert Diamond.
For the latest legal reports in the financial industry, read these related stories:
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllAlabama Man Arrested After Causing Bitcoin Price to Surge, Then Plummet After Fake SEC Tweet
3 minute readHunter Biden Sues Fox, Ex-Chief Legal Officer Over Mock Trial Series
Judge Sides With McDonald's In Attorney-Client Privilege Dispute With Former Executives
4 minute readMarriott's $52M Data Breach Settlement Points to Emerging Trend
Trending Stories
- 1A&O Shearman Adopts 3-Level Lockstep Pay Model Amid Shift to All-Equity Partnership
- 2A RICO Surge Is Underway: Here's How the Allstate Push Might Play Out
- 3The Law Firm Disrupted: Playing the Talent Game to Win
- 4Data-Driven Legal Strategies
- 5Preparing Your Law Firm for 2025: Smart Ways to Embrace AI & Other Technologies
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250