Barclays investors urged to reject bonuses for ex-CFO – Glass Lewis

By Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters) – Investor advisory firm Glass Lewis has recommended shareholders in Barclays vote against its pay for top bosses because of long-term bonuses awarded to its former finance chief at a time the bank sold billions of pounds of securities in error.

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

The proxy adviser said it objected to long-term awards that vested last year for 2020, 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 ahead of Barclays annual shareholder meeting on May 3.

The British lender 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 – who was CFO of Barclays from 2014 – retired from the bank in April 2022, and is now a non-executive director of insurer Legal & General and oil and gas giant BP.

Barclays was not immediately available for comment. Reuters attempted to contact Morzaria via Legal & General, who were not immediately available.

($1 = 0.8020 pounds)

(Reporting by Iain Withers; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Kirsten Donovan)