BARCLAYS is removing an EU-era limit on some of its top bankers’ and traders’ bonuses, joining rivals Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase in ditching the cap.
The change will allow the company’s so-called material risk takers to now earn a bonus that’s as much as 10 times their base salary, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. That is up from a current limit that restricts certain employees’ bonuses to two times their fixed pay.
The move “will allow us greater flexibility to differentiate individual bonuses within a small and defined group of colleagues,” a spokesperson for Barclays said in a statement. “The revised bonus cap will not alter the way Barclays sets its incentive pool, which is based on overall group performance.”
It’s the latest sign that some of London’s top bankers might soon have a paycheck that looks more like the bonus-heavy packages of their New York counterparts. It comes almost a year after UK officials scrapped the cap as part of a broader push to make post-Brexit Britain more attractive as a financial centre.
The bonus cap was first introduced by the European Union back in 2014 in response to public outcry about the financial crisis. For most lenders, the cap meant their material risk takers – which can be investment bankers, traders, risk managers or even compliance personnel – could earn variable compensation that was equal to two times their fixed salary.
After a slew of UK lenders got permission from shareholders to remove the cap earlier this year, it’s meant managers across London’s finance industry were able to begin the process of rejiggering bonuses for their traders and investment bankers. Their New York-based rivals have also joined in, with JPMorgan and Goldman already taking steps to lift limits of their own in recent months.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
In places like New York, bankers’ and traders’ bonuses can stretch into millions of US dollars and are many multiples of bankers’ and traders’ annual salaries. Wall Streeters spend months banking on their bonuses to pay for elite private schools, luxury vacation homes and private-club memberships.
For now, Barclays isn’t planning to materially change staffers’ fixed pay, a person familiar with the matter said. That differs from executives’ plans at Goldman, which has told bankers that ditching the cap on bonuses would mean lower fixed pay.
Barclays’ latest move does not apply to material risk takers that are part of certain subsidiaries including Barclays Bank Ireland or the company’s Monaco branch, according to the memo. Those staffers remain subject to the two-to-one cap under EU regulations.
“At an individual level, total compensation will continue to be performance based and market informed” according to the memo. “Generally, the revised bonus cap should not change colleague expectations around total compensation.” BLOOMBERG
