terça-feira, 11 de fevereiro de 2014

O banco britânico Barclays planeia extinguir este ano entre 10 a 12 mil postos de trabalho no grupo. O anúncio foi feito no mesmo dia em que o banco divulgou os seus resultados anuais, segundo os quais o bónus dos directores e administradores serão aumentados em 10% e irão custar ao grupo 2,8 mil milhões de euros.

O banco britânico Barclays planeia extinguir este ano entre 10 a 12 mil postos de trabalho no grupo, que emprega 139 mil pessoas, anunciou hoje o director executivo Antony Jenkins.
O anúncio foi feito no mesmo dia em que o banco divulgou os seus resultados anuais, segundo os quais o bónus dos directores e administradores serão aumentados em 10% e irão custar ao grupo 2,8 mil milhões de euros.

O Barclays voltou em 2013 a registar lucro, atingindo 650 milhões de euros, depois de ter tido prejuízos de 624 milhões no ano anterior, num ano marcado por pesadas provisões destinadas a compensar clientes lesados por vendas abusivas de produtos financeiros.

No ano passado, o Barclays já tinha anunciado um corte de pelo menos 3.700 empregos.

Nessa altura, o grupo planeou fechar pelo menos 100 agências e despedir 300 a 400 trabalhadores.

O Barclays está presente em Portugal desde 1981 e emprega cerca de 1.600 funcionários.

Em 2012, o Barclays encerrou 19 das suas 279 agências em Portugal, na sequência do plano de redução da base de custos no país.

Lusa/SOL

Barclays condemned over £2.4bn bonuses
Payouts up 10% despite profits fall and job cuts
Bank's boss says he cannot control market-led pay
Jill Treanor

Barclays faced condemnation on Tuesday after announcing a 10% rise in bonus payouts despite a dramatic fall in profits and plans to cut 12,000 jobs this year.

The bank's new boss, Antony Jenkins, came under intense pressure after being accused of failing on promises made only a year ago to clamp down on pay and change the culture of the bank after its £290m fine for rigging Libor.

The TUC accused the bank of "sticking two fingers up to hard-pressed families across Britain", while the Unite union was furious at further cuts at the retail bank, which could harm customer service.

But the harshest words came from the Institute of Directors, whose corporate governance director Roger Barker asked "for whom is this institution being run?" after the bank paid out £2.4bn in bonuses but just £860m in dividends to shareholders. The bank disputes that figure, but refused to say exactly how much it is paying out to shareholders, which has been complicated by last year's £5.8bn rights issue, forced upon Barclays by the Bank of England to boost its financial strength.

The main investor body, the Association British of Insurers, refused to respond to Barker's accusation that investors were "supine" in failing to control pay at Barclays.

The position of the bank's chair of remuneration committee Sir John Sutherland – appointed to the role only 18 months ago – was also questioned. Sunderland is entering his 10th year on the board, after which he is technically no longer deemed independent.

The total bonus pay for 2013 is £2.4bn – up from £2.2bn a year ago. Within that, the investment bankers enjoyed bonuses of £1.6bn compared with £1.4bn a year ago, even though their division suffered a loss in the fourth quarter and its annual profits tumbled 37%. Profits across the group, which also includes high street banking, Barclaycard and operations in Africa, fell 32% to £5.2bn.

On a statutory basis – including accounting quirks and other one-off items – the profits were higher, at £2.9bn.

Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: "Barclays has stuck two fingers up to hard-pressed families across Britain by announcing another multibillion-pound bonus pool." Labour said its bonus tax should be reintroduced.

Jenkins, who has waived his own £2.7m bonus, insisted he had the support of shareholders for the higher bonuses, which had to be paid because he had no control over market-led pay. He also insisted the bank was acting within the "spirit and letter" of the law by paying monthly "allowances" to key staff who might otherwise face pay cuts as a result of the new EU cap on bonuses, which will limit payouts next year to 100% of salary, or 200% if shareholders approve.

"We employ people from Singapore to San Francisco. We compete in global markets for talent. If we are to act in the best interests of our shareholders we have to make sure we have the best people in the firm," Jenkins said.

The average bonus per member of staff, across the bank, is £17,000, up from £15,600. However, the average payout in the investment banking operation is £60,100, up from £54,500 – including payouts to low level and administrative staff. The bonuses to the highest paid staff will be revealed next month when the bank publishes its annual report. Last year, it handed more than £1m to 428 of its bankers.

Jenkins said 820 senior roles – or 10% – would be cut. He also disputed concerns about the impact of job cuts on customer service. Seven thousand of the 12,000 job cuts will be in the UK but not all in the high street.

"The reason why we're doing this is not because we're trying to deliver poorer customer service, actually quite the reverse. Customers can now do their banking when its convenient to them, not … us. Technology allows [us] to reduce headcount," said Jenkins.

There was no programme for branch closures, he said, but conceded the 1,700-strong network was changing.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, said: "We need a responsible banking sector [that] rejects the bonus-fuelled culture of the past and puts the needs of consumers and businesses at the heart of what they do."

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury select committee, said Barclays' shareholders needed to ask if the pay was justified by the bank's returns to shareholders.

Even the presentation to City analysts was dominated by questions about bonuses and the investment bank. "Analysts were "perplexed" and "disappointed" by the investment bank pay rises," said independent analyst Louise Cooper.

A year ago, when Jenkins announced his plan to turn Barclays into the "go to" bank, the shares rose 9% to 327p. On Tuesday, they were the biggest fallers in the FTSE 100, ending nearly 4% lower at 264p. The dividend was held at 6.5p for the year

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