Barclays changes its executive bonus plan

Bob Diamond is due to receive £6.3m in pay and bonuses for 2011

Barclays has changed its executive remuneration plans ahead of its shareholders' meeting, following pressure from investors.

The changes affect the bonuses for 2011 of chief executive Bob Diamond and finance director Chris Lucas.

At the moment, they are due to receive the bonuses in shares over three years.

They have now agreed that they will only receive half of the award each year until certain targets for the bank have been met.

Mr Diamond received a £1.35m salary and a £2.7m bonus for 2011, as well as £2.25m in long-term incentive payments.

The £2.7m bonus is currently due to be paid at a rate of £900,000 a year over three years, but following the changes he may only receive half of that.

The applicable bonus figure for Mr Lucas is £1.8m, or £600,000 a year.

The target to be met is that the bank's return on equity must exceed its cost of equity, which are standard measures of the performance of banks.

At the moment, Barclays' cost of equity is 11.5% and its return on equity is 6.6%, so Mr Diamond and Mr Lucas have some way to go before they become eligible for their full bonuses.

Under the terms of the deal, if the target is not met until the third of the three years then Mr Diamond would receive his full £900,000 for that year as well as the £900,000 he had not been paid for the previous two years.

But it is a rolling three-year deal, so if the target were not to be met until, for example, the fifth year, Mr Diamond would only be able to claw back bonuses foregone in the previous two years.