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Barclays boss waives $1million bonus as scandal-hit bank suffers fresh blow over 'probe into Qatari loans that helped it avoid bailout'

By This Is Money Reporter
PUBLISHED:10:04, 1 February 2013| UPDATED:11:04, 2 February 2013

Scandals: The allegation piles yet more pressure on new chief executive Antony Jenkins, who today said he would turn down his 2012 bonus

Barclays confirmed today its chief executive Antony Jenkins is to waive his bonus for 2012 after a 'very difficult' year for the bank.
Mr Jenkins was expected to receive a bonus worth at least £1million for 2012. The maximum bonus he was entitled to was £2.75million - or 250 per cent of his £1.1million salary.
The news came as it emerged separately that the scandal-hit lender is reportedly under investigation over allegations it lent Qatari investors money to invest in the bank in 2008 as part of an emergency cash call to avoid a Government bailout.
The probe, reported by the Financial Times this morning but not confirmed so far, concerns the £6.1billion injected into Barclays in 2008 by Qatar Holding, which is a subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority, and Challenger, an investment vehicle of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar and his family.
Investors from Abu Dhabi and other sovereign wealth funds also pumped cash into the group as part of a capital raising.
The investment helped Barclays avoid the kind of a state bailout that was necessary at Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. Those banks received billions of pounds of taxpayers' money, making them part-nationalised, after they were deemed 'too big to fail'.
The FT reported that 'UK authorities' are now looking into allegations that the money was lent by Barclays to the Qatari group.
The allegation piles yet more pressure on Jenkins as he battles to repair the bank's reputation following a string of scandals, including the Libor rate rigging affair and mis-selling of payment protection insurance. Jenkins took on the role last August.

Following the £290million settlement for Libor rate rigging, he said: 'I am aware of considerable speculation about, and public interest in, the question of whether I will be awarded a bonus in respect of my performance in 2012.

'To avoid further unnecessary public debate on this matter, I wish to make clear that I concluded early this week that I do not wish to be considered for a bonus award for 2012 and I have communicated that decision to the Board.

'The year just past was clearly a very difficult one for Barclays and its stakeholders, with multiple issues of our own making besetting the bank. I think it only right that I bear an appropriate degree of accountability for those matters and I have concluded that it would be wrong for me to receive a bonus for 2012 given those circumstances.'

Protesters: In 2012 Barclays' share holders were angry over multi-million bonus pay deals for senior management

The terms of the bank's fundraising at the height of the financial crisis are already being scrutinised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Serious Fraud Office. Existing shareholders complained the terms offered to the new investors were too attractive.
Regulators have so far been focusing on fees paid for fundraising deals, but looking into loans to the Middle East is a new thread initiated after an Icelandic prosecutor involved in the Kaupthing collapse began investigations, leading to four Icelandic individuals being charged.
'The concept of lending money to any investor to purchase your own shares raises a series of immediate questions about disclosure and other regulatory issues,' former Citi banker Peter Hahn, now at Cass Business School, told the Financial Times.
Barclays and the FSA were not immediately available for comment.
Qatar Holdings and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani are not accused of any wrongdoing


Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2271761/Barclays-boss-waives-bonus-scandal-hit-bank-suffers-new-probe-alleged-loans-Qatar-helped-avoid-bailout.html#ixzz2Jk3HHjA9
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