Glass Lewis urges Barclays investors to veto executive pay proposals

Proxy shareholder adviser Glass Lewis has urged investors to vote against pay proposals for Barclays’ top executives following a year of scandals that has cost the bank hundreds of millions in fines and settlements.

Barclays was hit with a penalty by regulators in September for accidentally selling $17.7 billion (€16.2 billion) of structured financial products it did not have authorisation for. It settled for $361 million with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and set aside £450 million (€512 million) to compensate investors, helping drive down annual net income by 19 per cent.

Separately, it also set aside $200 million to settle a US regulatory investigation into employees’ unauthorised use of messaging apps WhatsApp and Signal to communicate between themselves and with clients.

As punishment for those and other scandals, the pay of top executives was reduced by a combined £1 million, the bank said in February when it published its full-year results.

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However, Glass Lewis objected to long-term awards close to £3 million that vested last year for former chief financial officer Tushar Morzaria, meaning he was awarded more than two-thirds of his potential pay package.

“We believe shareholders could reasonably have expected the committee to further reduce this award to better reflect the financial and reputational impact of the risk and control issues over the period,” Glass Lewis wrote in a report. Barclays’ annual general meeting will be held in London on May 3rd.

Mr Morzaria was finance chief for eight years, before retiring in April last year. He is also on the board of BP and Legal & General. — Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023