Barclays is planning to pay senior staff in contingent convertible bonds (cocos) – lucrative for them but costly for investors.
risks a shareholder backlash over its plans to revolutionise the way it pays its top bankers amid concerns that the new scheme will be too lucrative for senior executives.
Leading City shareholders, who are being asked to vote on the change at the Barclays annual meeting next month, are concerned that the terms being proposed for senior staff – including chief executive Bob Diamond – are too generous and will prove costly for investors in the bank.
Barclays wants to issue contingent convertible bonds – "cocos" – to its key bankers, traders and executives as a form of payment alongside shares and cash.
One senior investor said: "A lot of shareholders are very resistant. Cocos are very expensive for shareholders and very lucrative for the directors."
While investment industry sources caution that it is too early to say that big investors will vote against the scheme, because the annual meeting is still more than a month away, they say that the head of the bank's remuneration committee, Sir Richard Broadbent, is aware of the reservations.
Source: City uneasy over proposed 'coco' bonuses for Barclays executives | Business | The Guardian
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