John Varley told staff in an email last week that Barclays continued to be a performance-based business. "We are profitable year-to-date and performing resiliently. This year, as every year, colleagues will be rewarded in line with our normal policies and practices," he said in the email, a copy of which has been seen by The Sunday Telegraph.
"As you know, we have a pay-for-performance system at Barclays, and that will govern our bonus decisions for 2008."
Mr Varley's comments were intended to reassure employees that a decision by executive directors to forego bonuses this year –which will cost Bob Diamond, chief executive of Barclays Capital, a payout that was likely to be worth several million pounds - would not be imposed across the group.
Barclays is a special case, having turned down billions in government money. As we've pointed out, however, this is likely to be the case all across Wall Street. And it's going to cause outrage, as taxpayers realize that despite all the losses, bailouts and failures, Wall Streeters will still be getting paid huge bonuses.
