Barclays has been accused of making a mockery of bonus restraint as it hiked staff pay by a quarter while continuing to starve small businesses of funds.
The bank unveiled a 32% rise in profits for 2010 to £6.1bn – meaning it is making money at a rate of £192 a second.
Despite insisting that it had heeded public anger and curbed its bonus pool, its officials admitted its overall lending to businesses is still falling.
At a time when most consumers are suffering from a drop in living standards due to a surge in inflation and frozen salaries, Barclays announced:
Staffing costs increased by 20% to £11.9bn with performance-related pay rising by a quarter to £3.5bn.
Average pay for investment bankers rose from £191,000 to £236,000 – though the bank argues that this is mainly due to deferred performance awards.
Group profits surged to £6.1bn, as the profits of its so-called casino investment banking arm nearly doubled to £4.8bn.
By contrast, the bank’s total new loans to consumers and businesses rose by just £1bn to £36bn. But when repayments are included, this amounts to a significant drop in business loans.
The bank confirmed large businesses saw a £3bn drop in ‘net’ lending.
But it refused to give ‘net’ lending numbers – the repaid loans as well as new money handed out – for small and medium-sized firms, which are believed to be even worse.
The bank’s chief executive Bob Diamond insisted that Barclays was ‘open for business’, but said companies were deciding to pay down loans themselves.
He added: ‘We’d be delighted if we could increase net lending. We love to lend, it’s what banks do.’
