Barclays has doubled its CEO’s pay to £10.5m as the bank’s top performers share a bonus pot of £1.9bn.

The high-street lending giant is also awarding shares worth £500 to 90,000 employees after revealing a rise in pre-tax profits in 2024.

According to the firm’s accounts, the group’s boss, CS Venkatakrishnan, was awarded £4.64m in 2023, meaning his pay has risen by 127% as the company’s total income soared from £1.5bn to £26.8bn last year.

The company’s annual report showed that long-term bonuses and a rise in Barclays share value contributed to his earnings. This year, shareholders will vote on reducing the CEO’s base salary while allowing him to earn more than £14m annually through increased bonuses.

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Venkatakrishnan said: “In 2024 we met our financial targets, delivering for our customers and clients, with operational and financial performance improvement driven by disciplined execution of the three-year plan.”

The CEO’s compensation package was 182 times larger than the £57,854 median pay for Barclays UK employees, compared with 82 times the median pay the previous year. Barclays attributed the significant increase in the pay gap to the vesting of long-term incentive payments (LTIPs).

Venkatakrishnan’s remuneration package included a base salary of £2.935m, supplemented by a £2.219m bonus and £5.137m in LTIP payments. Additionally, he received a £147,000 pension top-up and taxable benefits, such as private medical coverage, life insurance, income protection, tax advice, and a company vehicle with a driver, valued at £95,000.

This year, his base salary is being reduced to £1.59m as part of a restructured pay scheme.

In the report, the bank’s remuneration committee expressed satisfaction that the 2024 remuneration for the group chief executive, as well as the total and fixed pay outcomes for UK employees, align with the group’s remuneration philosophy and appropriately reflect stakeholder experience.

Commenting on the share awards, Venkatakrishnan said: “To align their efforts fully with our shareholders’ interests, our colleagues need to participate in the ultimate outcome of their efforts – the change in our share price. Therefore, we are announcing a share grant of £500 each for the vast majority of our colleagues – essentially all employees, across locations, except for managing directors and material risk takers.

“I have long felt that this type of alignment between shareholders and employees through equity participation strengthens business outcomes. In the UK, broad-based share ownership has been sadly declining. This represents our effort towards arresting and correcting this trend.”

Barclays’ latest figures showed it had achieved a pre-tax profit of £8.1bn for 2024, marking a 24% increase from the £6.6bn profit in 2023.

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