Barclays in row with top investor over attack on pay

Thirty-four percent of Barclays shareholders failed to back the bank’s directors remuneration report, with 24pc of investors actively voting against, highlighting the scale of opposition to the payouts.

Responding to Standard Life’s criticism, Sir David argued Barclays had made every effort to give its shareholders a chance to comment on its remuneration policy.

“We have a very substantive consulting process with the shareholders where we ask for feedback and reaction. Sir John’s point was that we did that, I think impeccably, and he led this with a very substantial number of conversations with major shareholders and I think there is just a bit of irritation that some of the concerns they came to express later, at a very late stage in the process, they didn’t express at an earlier stage.

He added: “It is important if that process is to be effective that they actually tell us what they think and there was some, not for the first time this year, some holding back and then you get a broadside at a very late stage in the process when it may be too late.”

However, Standard Life’s criticism was echoed by another big shareholder, with F&C Investments complaining about the “imbalance” at the bank between “excessive” staff pay and investor dividends.

“We understand the rationale behind the board’s decision to increase the incentive pool in 2013, and appreciate the board’s commitment to continuing its repositioning journey and reducing the compensation ratio, but cannot support the implementation of the remuneration plan in 2013 because we believe that aggregate rewards to staff were excessive relative to performance,” said Eugenia Jackson, head of corporate governance at F&C.

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