Barclays paid 12 executives £31.8m in bonuses

Barclays, the UK's second-largest bank by assets, paid 12 senior executives about £31.8 million (€38 million)in bonuses as it prepares to eliminate jobs this year.

Hugh “Skip” McGee, who became Barclays’s chief executive officer for the Americas in May, was the highest-paid with £8.87 million, London-based Barclays said in a statement.

Chief executive Antony Jenkins was given shares valued at £3.82 million.

Barclays last month drew criticism for boosting its 2013 total bonus pool as investment-banking profit shrank, and plans to cut as many as 12,000 jobs this year to eliminate costs after profit declined.

Adjusted pretax profit fell to £191 million in the fourth quarter from 1.4 billion pounds a year earlier, Barclays said in February.

Barclays is also among currency-trading firms that have suspended traders amid a probe into alleged rigging of the foreign-exchange market.

At least 21 employees of global banks have been fired, suspended or put on leave since Bloomberg News first reported in June that dealers said they shared information about client orders to manipulate benchmark rates used in the $5.3 trillion-a-day currency market.

No firms or traders have been accused of wrongdoing by government authorities.

The executive awards published today compare with £40.3 million shared among nine managers last year including Rich Ricci, the former head of the investment bank, who was awarded £17.6 million in shares. The bank last month set aside £2.4 billion for 2013 bonuses, up from £2.17 billion a year earlier.

Bloomberg