Barclays must end entitlement culture of "the top 70"
UNI Finance welcomes the Salz Review which exposes the bank's flawed culture and values. The report's author, lawyer and investment banker, Anthony Salz found that Barclays should lower its warped pay levels, end the bank’s “entitlement culture” and usher in a spirit of “transparency and candour”. Salz said pay levels were one of the most pernicious cultural problems, particularly among a cohort at the helm of the bank that he calls “the top 70”.
“Compensation for the ‘group of 70’ was consistently and significantly above the median compared to peer banks,” the report says. In 2010, it says that top group earned 35 per cent more than the “market benchmark for their positions”. Although the pay premium has fallen since, it remains in place and averaged 17 per cent in 2011.
Marcio Monzane, Head of UNI Finance said, " For many years Barclays and other banks have been focusing on short-term return on equity and top executives have seen their greedy behaviour being rewarded by very high pay and bonuses. The Salz Review shows that the banking culture needs to change and become more ethical to win back trust from employees, consumers and society at large. "
UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings said, "The Salz Review has revealed the depth of the "cultural shortcomings" which led to the Libor-rigging scandal. What's positive is that Barclays has at last had the courage to look in the mirror and face its shortcomings. What's needed now is not a make-over but a blueprint to finally change this culture of greed. Mea culpa is not enough, we demand action. UNI Global Union is calling on Barclays to create a framework agreement for a new banking culture. We are ready to work with Sir David and new management team."
Salz’s review, which he describes as setting down a “road map for the future”, was commissioned by Barclays last July following the bank’s £290m fines over the Libor rate-rigging scandal and the resignations of chairman Marcus Agius, chief executive Bob Diamond and chief operating officer Jerry del Missier that followed. The report – designed to help restore Barclays’ tarnished image, following a succession of other scandals – is the result of an exhaustive programme of interviews with 600 staff, investors, customers and regulators over the past nine months.
Barclays said at the time that it intended to implement the findings of the Salz review in full.
Read the Salz Review by clicking on the attached file tab above.