Barclays has revealed pre-tax profits soared to £8.4 billion in 2021 as it released cash set aside for pandemic loan losses and notched up record investment banking earnings.
The banking giant more than doubled profits from £3.1 billion in 2020 thanks to the release of £700 million in bad debt provisions, compared with £4.8 billion set aside for Covid loan losses the previous year.
Barclays also announced its first female finance director, appointing deputy group finance director Anna Cross to the role from April 23.
She will succeed Tushar Morzaria, who is retiring after more than eight years in the post, and becomes the first woman to hold one of the top three boardroom jobs at the bank.
Barclays said in its annual report that it has suspended all of former chief executive Jes Staley’s unvested long-term bonus share awards pending a regulatory investigation into his relationship with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The group said almost 70% of these share awards granted since he was appointed in 2015 remain unvested.
Mr Staley stepped down last November to contest findings by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority over the way he represented his relationship with Mr Epstein to the bank.
He still receives his contractual entitlement to £2.4 million in cash and shares – the equivalent of 12 months in fixed pay – as well as a pension allowance and other undisclosed benefits.
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