Barclays Chief Declines Annual Bonus

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 Antony Jenkins became chief executive of Barclays in 2012.Credit Luke MacGregor/Reuters

Updated, 1:54 p.m. | LONDON — Barclays’ chief executive, Antony Jenkins, said Monday that he would forgo a bonus for 2013 in light of the bank’s continued restructuring costs and litigation expenses.

Mr. Jenkins said the bank had made progress in regaining the trust of the British public and shaping its business, but still paid “very significant costs” last year to address previous litigation and conduct issues and to exit business lines as part of its continued restructuring.

“When combined with the substantial rights issue we completed in the autumn, I have concluded that it would not be right, in the circumstances, for me to accept a bonus for 2013, and I have therefore respectfully declined the one offered to me by the board,” Mr. Jenkins said in a statement.

Mr. Jenkins will still receive a base salary of £1.1 million. He could have received a bonus as high as £2.75 million. He also declined to accept a bonus in 2012.

Mr. Jenkins took the top job in 2012 as the bank was reeling from participation by its employees in a scheme to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.

Barclays and four other financial institutions combined to pay more than $3 billion to regulators in the United States and Britain over the rate-rigging scandal.

The bank also is in the middle of a revamping in which it hopes to cut annual costs by 1.7 billion pounds, or about $2.8 billion, by 2015.

Barclays announced last year that it planned to eliminate at least 3,700 jobs, including 1,800 in its corporate and investment banking businesses.

It is preparing to cut another 400 jobs in the investment bank, according to a person familiar with the matter. Barclays employs about 140,000 people worldwide.

Last week, the lender said that its fourth-quarter results would include additional charges of £110 million against income in its investment bank related to litigation and regulatory penalties. Barclays will report its results on Feb. 11.