Yahoo Finance Barclays boss Jes Staley faces £1m hit after hunt for whistleblower
The recent whistleblowing case at Barclays is likely to cost the bank’s boss Jes Staley up to £1m in fines and bonuses after he broke the rules by trying to unmask the person who made the claims.
Regulators are understood to be planning to fine Mr Staley up to 10pc of his after-tax salary for 2016 – the year in which the breach occurred – or last year.
In both years he earned an after-tax salary of around £1.25m, translating to a potential fine of up to £125,000. If the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) extends that to his total pay packet, including bonuses and pension payments, the fine could be as much as £225,000.
On top of that, The Daily Telegraph understands the bank’s board is considering clawing back up to half of his bonus for 2016.
His bonus was £1.32m that year so he stands to lose around £666,000, taking the hit from the FCA and Barclays to as much as £891,000. Both the FCA and Barclays declined to comment.
The City watchdog said Mr Staley, a former JP Morgan banker, failed to act with due skill, care and diligence when he instructed his security team to locate the source of personal allegations made about a colleague in 2016. Mr Staley apologised last year for his “mistake” in twice trying to identify the whistleblower.
He was cleared of the more serious charge of acting with “a lack of integrity”, which could have seen him stripped of the right to lead the bank. Barclays was not sanctioned.
The outcome angered whistleblowing lawyers, who accused the FCA and fellow regulator the Prudential Regulation Authority of going soft on Mr Staley and the bank. The investigation was seen as the first big test of rules designed to police the conduct of top bank bosses.
“This was an opportunity for UK regulators to say they will protect whistleblowers, and they blew it,” Erika Kelton, a partner and whistleblowing attorney at Phillips and Cohen, told The Telegraph.
The verdict boosted Barclays as it works to fend off a campaign to overhaul it by New York-based corporate raider Edward Bramson. Mr Staley’s misconduct dated back to June 2016, when Barclays executives received an anonymous letter raising concerns about a recent senior hire.
The letter was treated by the bank as a whistleblow. Barclays’ own investigation found Mr Staley “honestly, but mistakenly, believed” his actions to try to identify who wrote the letter were permitted.
There is some anger at the bank over how long the FCA investigation has taken. One insider said: “It has taken the FCA more than a year to come to the same conclusion that Barclays came to in just a few weeks – that Jes wasn’t guilty of the more serious charge.”
