Barclays PLC under pressure over Staley departure package

Barclays is coming under pressure from shareholders over the terms of Jes Staley’s departure package, according to a report in the FT.

Staley stepped down as the bank’s chief executive two weeks ago following an FCA investigation into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the US financier who committed suicide while awaiting trial on child sex-trafficking charges.

According to the report, three of Barclays’ largest 20 shareholders have raised concerns over the £2.4mln pay award to Staley, who intends to contest the findings of the FCA report, a full version of which has yet to be published.

Lobby group The Investor Forum has received complaints from its members over Staley’s, pay and also the costs of his return to the US, said the FT.

The Forum’s members manage more than US$20tn and include many of the world’s largest fund managers.

Barclays’ chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan will reportedly hold video calls with the banks’ largest investors next week.

“We will be asking questions about what they knew, when they knew it and we will be questioning their judgment,” one investor was quoted as saying.

“It’s another reputation knock. The new chair has got a hell of a job trying to repair all the PR with the regulators.”

In 2018, Staley was fined £642,000 by UK regulators over attempts to identify a whistleblower who had raised concerns about a senior appointment at the bank.

The Investor Forum, Barclays and a spokesperson for Staley all declined to comment, said the FT.