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* Staley's allowance to drop to around 17% of base salary
* Barclays' staff to be offered rise to 12.5%
* Move echoes pension payout cuts across sector
By Sinead Cruise
LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Barclays is planning to
cut the 396,000 pounds ($508,068) pension allowance it pays
Chief Executive Jes Staley by around half, echoing moves by
rivals who have pledged to rein in executive pension perks
following a campaign by investors.
The British lender is consulting shareholders on the
proposal in a review of its remuneration policy to be voted on
at the bank's annual meeting next year, a source with knowledge
of the matter said.
The possible changes follow protests from investors and
employee unions over the disparity between pension payouts
offered to Britain's top bank bosses and their staff.
HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland have
pledged to set pension contributions paid to their CEOs at 10%
of base salary, matching those paid to their wider workforces.
Barclays is looking to boost typical pension contributions
paid to employees from 10% to 12.5%, the source added.
But Staley's new cash payment would equate to around 17% of
the 1.18 million pound annual salary he was paid last year,
suggesting Barclays is stopping short of full harmonisation,
risking further investor dissent and scrutiny from policymakers.
"It's a start but these cuts do not really go far enough.
There's no real reason why CEO pension payments shouldn't be
completely in line with other staff," Peter Parry, policy
director at investor group ShareSoc told Reuters.
"There is always a worry that when companies rein in pay in
one area, they compensate for it in another area. The sad thing
is that executive pay is now out of control," he said.
Standard Chartered still plans to pay its top two
executives double the pension benefits it pays to general staff.
Earlier this month it said it would reduce the payouts to
CEO Bill Winters and Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford from
20% to 10% of total salary, which includes both base pay and a
fixed pay allowance paid in shares.
But as a proportion of base salary alone, the benefit falls
from 40% to 20%, compared with 10% for its staff.
The changes mean that Winters' pension allowance in 2020
will drop to 237,000 pounds and Halford's to 147,000 pounds.
Lloyds Banking Group plans to cut the pension
allowance paid to its Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio by
228,000 pounds, a source familiar with the situation said.
Horta-Osorio, the longest-serving of Britain's top banking
bosses, pocketed a contribution of around 419,000 pounds this
year, equating to 33% of his 1.27 million pounds base salary.
The cut would see his allowance as a percentage of base
salary drop to 15%, in line with the maximum contribution the
bank plans to offer other staff from 2020.
Horta-Osorio was the sector's best-paid CEO in 2018, earning
a 6.3 million pounds compensation package.
Santander UK is now the only major UK lender yet to reform
its generous executive pension arrangements.
Its Chief Executive Nathan Bostock takes home a pension
allowance equivalent to 35% of his base pay. The arrangements
are under review, a source close to the matter said.
At 3.4 million pounds, Staley's total remuneration package
at Barclays for 2018 - which also included a share-based payment
of 1.2 million pounds and a 1.1 million pounds bonus - was the
lowest among Britain's bank bosses.
Staley's proposed pension allowance cut was first reported
by the Financial Times.
($1 = 0.7794 pounds)
(Additional reporting by Iain Withers
Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
