• 03 Nov 2009 at 10:45 AM

Bonus Watch ’09: Barclays

No projected numbers (yet), though apparently the breakdown of the goodie bag being considered is not making our favorite chippies very happy (and you know what the junior UK rainmakers do when they’re not happybitch!). Just keep your fingers crossed this isn’t contagious.

British-based Barclays Capital may be a bellwether for Wall Street’s bonus season. The bank is ratcheting up stock payments to its execs and axing the amount of cash it pays out in bonuses this year — a move that may influence US-based firms.
Barclays’ employees, which number roughly 9,000 here in the city, are said to be unhappy about the plan, which could leave some seeing just a tenth of their expected bonuses land in their bank accounts next January, after taxes are taken out.

Although decisions have yet to be finalized, sources say that the bank, which bought Lehman Brothers out of bankruptcy, could pay 75 or 80 percent of its compensation in stock and options that vest over periods of as long as five years.
The portions of the bonuses paid in cash can also be clawed back, sources said.

Comments (38)

  1. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 10:50 AM

    Re the bonus issue, if any of the Barclays people graduated from MIT and “have never lost money” don’t they have a right to whine like a little baby if their bonuses are reduced in some way? Isn’t that a Wall Street rule?

  2. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 10:50 AM

    and what are you going to do about it, huh?
    -bobby d

  3. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 10:52 AM

    @1 what are you talking about? ppl who graduated from MIT don’t work at a bucket shop like barclays.

  4. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 10:53 AM

    At RBS, bonuses are pencils shoved under your eyelids.
    – 1 of the Queen’s many bitches

  5. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 10:55 AM

    @4 is it true that in related news, RBS employees are staging a mass game of freeze tag on I-95 at 1:00pm?

  6. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 10:57 AM

    @5 yes.
    -the queen’s favorite corgie

  7. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 10:58 AM

    You mean the 12 ex-Lehman quants who didn’t get axed and were offered jobs at BarcLehs are complaining?

  8. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:01 AM

    Prease to meet at River Kwai to discuss recent fuer hedge strucutures.
    ~Asian Fuer Hedgers Association

  9. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:01 AM

    @8 retarded. congrats.
    @7 them and everyone else

  10. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:02 AM

    Bend over and take it bitches.
    Homeboy, no bonus for you, yo’ firm was lookin’ bankrupt
    You a haggler naw I’m not taggin ya
    But you don’t want them boys to come over and start askin ya
    What you wanna do, nigga? (Nothin)
    What you tryin to do, nigga? (Nothin)
    What you wanna do, nigga? (Nothin)
    What you tryin to do?

  11. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:04 AM

    @10 love the song but when was barclays looking bankrupt?

  12. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:08 AM

    @5
    Those wusses were supposed to have it at Talladega last weekend. That’s gonna be an extra pencil under the eyelids boys.
    -The Queen

  13. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:08 AM

    @11 I assume he’s rapping at legacy LEH.
    -not 10

  14. Posted by NakedShort | November 3, 2009 at 11:11 AM

    Imagine if this type of bullshit went on in the school system.
    Clawback 1.0% of your fat fucking pension for every student that drops out of before recieving a college diploma; another 2.5% if you inspire them enough to be convcited of a non violent crime before the age of 21; 5.5% if a student is convicted of a violent crime before the age of 21; ect. And this is coming from a guy who has two teachers in his family.
    This make it up as we go along crap can suck my dingleberries.

  15. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:16 AM

    Jesus!! Are you saying BCS isn’t a traded derivative of the “Bowl Championship Series”????? What the hell have I been trading???
    ~The Forehead Slapper

  16. Posted by green_mailer | November 3, 2009 at 11:19 AM

    @Naked FTW!!!

  17. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:20 AM

    @naked – ridiculous analogy and you should know. The article didn’t even mention clawbacks. So calm the fuck down.

  18. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:23 AM

    @17 it didn’t? “The portions of the bonuses paid in cash can also be clawed back, sources said.”

  19. Posted by NakedShort | November 3, 2009 at 11:27 AM

    @17 you are a perfect example of what I am talking about I am assuming you are a college grad and you couldnt even read the entire article, and I quote “The portions of the bonuses paid in cash can also be clawed back, sources said.” So now your poor english teachers just had 2% of their pension docked.
    The point I am drawing in the “ridiculous analogy” is much the same way a teacher doesn’t have much control over a student after they walk out the door of their classroom for the summer; how can these junior rainmakers have their pay tied to the behavior of executives they never come in contact with?

  20. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:28 AM

    @14
    But we aren’t responsible for the failed state of the economy today.
    -Teacher’s union rep

  21. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:36 AM

    @4 – but . . . wouldn’t that hurt and be not much of a “bonus” after all?
    I don’t get it.
    -AIG Quant

  22. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:41 AM

    @21 a lot of these commercial banks think of bonus as a percentage of base comp, rather than just a big random number. I didn’t get it at first either but there was a lecture at NYU a few years back where they explained the approach in detail. I may still have the slides.
    - another former Lehman Quant

  23. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:45 AM

    @20 – sure you are, students of your members graduated into the middle class, taking on mortgages they couldn’t afford. and i’m sure they’re not paying their bills with restricted interests in chalk and gold stars

  24. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 11:58 AM

    @23 – AAA-rated gold stars considered eligable collateral under TARP

  25. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 12:05 PM

    Sick it bitches – I’m tenured. Can’t touch me.
    - Teacher

  26. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 12:07 PM

    You are all pathetic. Get back to work.

  27. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 12:10 PM

    Hey Tenured at 25 – Fick You!

  28. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 12:20 PM

    Diamond just talked to the bank about this and says no deferral

  29. Posted by Investorcluzo | November 3, 2009 at 12:34 PM

    forehead slapper – welcome back to the fray!
    @naked – continue to put the smack down on the young sh1theels with the unwarranted sense of entitlement…
    for the record, the stock portion is going to be home run if (a) you stick around long enough to monetize it and (b) barry doesn’t tax the “excess” profits from “windfall” you received because you got shares instead of greenbacks which have been debased…just sayin’ (not a barclays employee or shareholder)

  30. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 12:41 PM

    If I am about to die by an inferno and a fireman breaks in and rescues me from a definite death – I don’t become his indentured servant for life, but I sure as hell am going to make an extremely sizable donation to his firehouse for the next year or two. Of course – let us begin to rape and pillage all others again in 2010. Cheers.

  31. Posted by pfluger | November 3, 2009 at 12:45 PM

    To help ease da pain of da shrunken bonuses, each Barclays associate will be receiving a personally autographed copy of my book, which is bound to become a classic just like Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations”.
    -cg

  32. Posted by pfluger | November 3, 2009 at 12:49 PM

    @14/NS:
    What??! What???? Sacrilege. Claw back pensions from public servants?? From TEACHERS???? Don’t you know their pensions are FOR THE CHILDREN, you coldhearted Wall Street SOB.
    These are the people who will reinvent capitalism and make America’s economy thrive:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3mw49mk_x0

  33. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 12:57 PM

    @14, 32, give it another year or two and their pensions will be worthless anyhow. no need to claw anything back.

  34. Posted by pfluger | November 3, 2009 at 1:07 PM

    @33:
    No, they will be fine, regardless of the value of the pension funds. And you WILL pay the taxes necessary to make these “investments” in the children.
    -bho

  35. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 1:57 PM

    You mean I don’t get a bonus for losing billions of dollars and getting bailed out by the govt?
    This is the end of capitalism!

  36. Posted by guest | November 3, 2009 at 4:04 PM

    @35, thanks. I did not know that Barclays got bailed out by the government. Are they the Goldman Sachs? Or do they just know someone at the Goldman Sachs who could credit default swap them the bailout? They should go to jail regardless.

  37. Posted by barcap employee | November 10, 2009 at 8:57 PM

    Barcap will NOT set the trend. Why? Because Barcap pays out their bonuses one month after most of the other banks do — hence, it has always been a follower, not a trend setter.

  38. Posted by barcap employee | November 10, 2009 at 8:57 PM

    Barcap will NOT set the trend. Why? Because Barcap pays out their bonuses one month after most of the other banks do — hence, it has always been a follower, not a trend setter.

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