Barclays (BARC) could cut in half the pension payments made to its chief executive, Jes Staley, after investor pressure to bring them in line with the rest of the bank’s workforce. Staley received an annual cash payment of £396,000 last year in place of a pension in order to avoid taxes on pensions for higher earners. That could fall by as much as £200,000 under plans reportedly being shared with shareholders before a new remuneration policy due in February. Staley’s pension payments were equivalent to 17% of his total fixed salary in 2018, and under the proposals would fall to about the same level as the 10% paid to other Barclays staff. A Barclays source said pension contributions across the business would rise from 10% to 12.5% of salary. The changes, first reported by the Financial Times, would bring Barclays in line with the other major British banks, which have also faced pressure to stop outsized pension perks in the wake of an updated corporate governance code that said bosses’ pension contributions should be in line with the rest of the workforce.
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) has nearly doubled the pay of its chief executive to £3.4m after the bank was pushed to a second consecutive annual loss by a £385m charge for mis-sold payment protection insurance. David Duffy’s pay jumped by 84% from £1.8m in 2018, despite an investor revolt in January in which a third of shareholders opposed the bumper payout. The big increase was driven largely by a bonus of £1.3m linked to the 2015 demerger of Virgin Money’s predecessor bank, CYBG, from National Australia Bank, as well as incentives from 2016. Duffy’s base salary was worth £1m, according to the bank’s annual report, published late on Thursday.
At least 30 Bonmarche Holdings (BON) stores are to close next month with the loss of about 240 jobs, as previous owner Philip Day prepares to buy back the remaining chain out of administration. The Peacocks chain, which is part of Day’s Edinburgh Woollen Mill group, has been named by administrators at FRP advisory as preferred bidder for Bonmarché, which continues to trade from 285 stores. The deal would hand back ownership to Day, whose Spectre investment vehicle took control of Bonmarché shortly before it fell into administration in October. FRP, which has been seeking a buyer for the fashion chain, said it had considered “numerous offers from a range of interested parties for all or parts of the business” but believed the Peacocks bid was the best on the table.
