Barclays cuts 2008 bonuses

Barclays Plc, the British bank asking investors for 7 billion pounds to shore up capital, won't pay top executives annual bonuses this year following similar moves by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS AG.

Barclays Chief Executive Officer John Varley, investment banking chief Robert Diamond, consumer bank head Frits Seegers and Finance Director Chris Lucas will forgo their 2008 bonuses, the London-based bank said yesterday. Diamond, the bank's top-paid director, got a 6.5 million-pound bonus last year as well as his 250,000-pound base salary.

Governments across the world have agreed to bail out financial services companies amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, putting bonuses under heightened scrutiny from lawmakers and taxpayers. Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein this week said he would forgo his bonus, while UBS scrapped bonuses for CEO Marcel Rohner and 11 other top executives this month. "This is the least Barclays can do," said Peter Braendle, who helps oversee $48 billion, including Barclays shares, at Swisscanto Asset Management AG in Zurich. "They should take into account not just what happened this year but what they did to the bank in previous years."