Barclays investors urged to reject bonuses for ex-CFO

By Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters) -Investor advisory firm Glass Lewis has recommended that Barclays' shareholders vote against its bosses' pay because of long-term bonuses awarded to one former executive who was finance chief when the bank sold billions of pounds of securities in error.

The British bank is also set to face scrutiny at its May 3 annual general meeting in relation to former CEO Jes Staley.

U.S. lawsuits have alleged Staley had a close relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and have alleged involvement in his sex-trafficking operation.

Staley has acknowledged having been friendly with Epstein, but expressed regret for their relationship and denied knowing about the financier's alleged crimes.

A lawyer for Staley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Glass Lewis said it was monitoring the Staley issue but did not recommend any shareholder action.

Investor advisory firms like Glass Lewis are influential as shareholders often follow their voting recommendations.

SECURITIES BLUNDER

Barclays docked the pay of its ex-CFO Tushar Morzaria and its current top executives by a combined 1 million pounds ($1.25 million) in February over the securities blunder.

Glass Lewis said the deductions for Morzaria did not go far enough.

The adviser said it objected to long-term awards that vested last year, under which Morzaria was awarded nearly 3 million pounds after the deductions, representing 70% of the potential total pot.

"[W]e believe shareholders could reasonably have expected the committee to further reduce this award to better reflect the financial and reputational impact of the risk and control issues over the period," Glass Lewis wrote in its report.

Barclays paid a $200 million fine to U.S. regulators last year for "staggering" failures over several years that led it to oversell $17.7 billion of structured products and forced the restatement of 2021 financial accounts.

Morzaria retired from the bank in April 2022 and is now a non-executive director of insurer Legal & General and oil and gas group BP.

Barclays said decisions by its pay committee were set out in its 2022 annual report, which outlined that the "control environment" element of Morzaria's long-term award assessment was set to zero.

Reuters attempted to contact Morzaria via Legal & General, which declined to comment.

STALEY SCRUTINY

Barclays said in a notice last week that recent allegations against Staley regarding his relationship with Epstein were "serious and new".

The banker, who joined Barclays in 2015, had previously worked at JPMorgan where Epstein was a client.

JPMorgan is now suing Staley over his relationship with Epstein and what he knew about his former client's activities related to sex-trafficking.

Staley is expected to make a deposition this month.

He left Barclays in 2021 after a dispute with British financial regulators over how he described his ties with Epstein.

The bank said it suspended long-term bonuses for Staley in February 2022 pending further developments. Barclays said last week that the board would "consider further action as appropriate".

Barclays has said Staley received 2 million pounds in fixed pay during his 12-month notice period, and the bank paid his moving expenses back to the United States.

Glass Lewis said investors could be "reasonably satisfied" with the company's disclosures on Staley and welcomed the suspension of his awards.

($1 = 0.8020 pounds)

(Reporting by Iain WithersEditing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Kirsten Donovan and Jane Merriman)