£2 million rise for Barclays bank chief

The banker who said he would never borrow on a credit card because it was too expensive was rewarded last year with a £2 million pay rise to £4.9 million.

The pay packet, one of the biggest seen in a British boardroom, was given to Barclays chief executive Matt Barrett.

Irish-Canadian Mr Barrett's package last year included base pay of £1.1 million, a £1.9 million cash bonus, £831,000 of free shares, a £990,000 top-up to his pension fund and £69,000 in benefits. The award, up by 69 per cent, provoked immediate outrage from consumer groups. Eddy Weatherill of the Independent Banking Advisory Service said: "It's the same story - fat cattery. He's getting this at the expense of consumers. Profits are all the banks are interested in."

The Consumers' Association reiterated its call for boardroom pay in the financial services industry to be linked to customer satisfaction. A string of bankers and insurance chiefs have seen their pay rise to record levels in recent weeks.

But Barclays strongly defended the pay rise, saying Mr Barrett had delivered good returns for shareholders since his arrival in October 1999.

"It's been the most profitable four years in Barclays history," a spokeswoman said. "Matt has transformed the bank from an under-performer to one of the best in the

world in terms of shareholder returns."

Last year Barclays lifted total pre-tax profits by 20 per cent to £3.8 billion after attracting 1.5 million new customers. Profits at its Barclaycard credit card operation rose by 17 per cent to £722 million.

Mr Barrett came under fire last year after he admitted to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that he would never personally borrow on a credit card because it was "too expensive". Later the bank was forced by the Office of Fair Trading to scrap an advertising claim which was said to be "highly misleading".

Pay soared for other Barclays directors too. Chairman Sir Peter Middleton, the former Treasury mandarin, received £566,000, up from £528,000 in 2002, making him the highest paid parttime chairman of any British company.

John Varley, who takes over from Mr Barrett at the end of this year, saw his

pay and bonuses lifted from £668,000 to £905,000. He also received a free share award of £184,000 and a £484,000 top-up to the value of his pension pot.

The executive pay rises were set and approved by a committee of non-executive directors chaired by Sir Nigel Rudd, whose own fee was increased from £57,000 to £62,000.

Barclays achieved total shareholder return - a commonly used City measure of performance - of 37 per cent in 2003, ranking it third out of 12 major banks in its peer group.