FIRED BARCLAYS CHIEF EXECUTIVE 'TO WALK AWAY WITH £28MILLION IN CASH AND SHARES' DESPITE NOT TURNING AROUND THE TROUBLED BANK

Sacked Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins
will leave with about £28million in cash and shares.

Sacked Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins will walk away with about £28million in cash and shares despite failing to turn around the troubled bank.

Mr Jenkins was fired by chairman John McFarlane – a gruff Scottish banker nicknamed Mac the Knife for his take-no-prisoners attitude – after losing the confidence of the bank’s board.

But the ousted boss' payout includes a £2.4million 'golden goodbye', £15million in shares and nearly £11million in bonuses, it was reported.

The £2.4million cash sum includes his £1.1million annual salary, £950,000 allowance and £363,000 pension contribution, the Sunday Times reported.

And the total could increase by another £10.8m depending on the bank's performance in the short and long-term.

Mr Jenkins is said to have been fired because he failed to make enough headway cutting down the forest of bureaucracy engulfing Barclays.

He also failed to cut costs quickly enough and has struggled to improve the performance at the investment bank, it was claimed.

Mr McFarlane told Mr Jenkins of the decision on Friday but denied that Barclays had deliberately put out the news of his departure on Budget day, when all eyes would be on George Osborne.

He said the announcement was delayed ‘out of respect’ for Mr Jenkins, who was making a speech in the City on Tuesday evening.

‘We could not hold it any longer than 7am Wednesday morning because I had told executive directors and they might tell their wives, their lovers, whoever,’ said Mr McFarlane.

‘It is amazing it didn’t leak out, even though I read the riot act to people about keeping quiet. I can assure you we did not deliberately do it on Budget Day.’

Mr McFarlane, also nicknamed 'Johnny Cash' because he likes to play the guitar, was reported to have called Mr Jenkins into the chairman's office on the 31st floor of the bank's Canary Wharf headquarters.

The sacking, agreed to earlier by the non-executive board, caused a three per cent jump in shares.

Investors will now be hoping Mr McFarlane can turn around the bank, just as he did at Royal Bank of Scotland after the financial crash in 2008 as non-executive director.

Daily Mail