Barclays PLC (LON: BARC) have announced on Thursday that they will join other competitors in cutting the pensions of personnel in senior executive positions.
This morning, Barclays announced that they had sold a division of Barclays Wealth to Rathbone Brothers (LON: RAT) for an undisclosed fee.
Shares of Barclays currently trade at 174p (-0.1%). 28/11/19 13:37BST.
Barclays announced that they will cut the £396,000 pension that it pays to Chief Executive Jes Staley by around 50%.
The moves cues after rivals have also pledged to tame executive pensions perks following activism by investors.
The British bank is consulting shareholders on the proposal following an overhaul and restructure strategy, and will be voted at the banks’s annual meeting next year.
Competitors such as HSBC (LON: HSBA) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LON: RBS) have told shareholders that they will set pension contributions paid to CEO’s at 10% of base salary, which will match other workers in the firm.
“It’s a start but these cuts do not really go far enough. There’s no real reason why CEO pension payments shouldn’t be completely in line with other staff,” Peter Parry, policy director at investor group ShareSoc told Reuters.
“There is always a worry that when companies rein in pay in one area, they compensate for it in another area. The sad thing is that executive pay is now out of control,” he said.
Additionally, Standard Chartered (LON: STAN) reported that they will cut the pension’s for their CFO and CEO at the start of the month, despite the strong leadership of Winters and Halford producing strong third quarter results.
Finally, Lloyds Banking Group (LON: LLOY) joined the movement when the global bank announced that they cut the pension allowance paid to Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio, by £228,000.
Horta-Osorio, the longest-serving of Britain’s top banking bosses, pocketed a contribution of around 419,000 pounds this year, equating to 33% of his £1.27 million base salary.
The move from the global banks to make this change reflects shareholder sentiment that CEO’s are taking too much control of the institutions.
The move will certainly please shareholders and other workers at these global banks, and should allow a more consistent pension plan across all workers.