Mysterious rise of Barclays banker

ALL the ingredients for a sizzling tabloid story were there when Rio Ferdinand was spotted partying with a leggy blonde at an exclusive London club the night before his FA disciplinary hearing over a missed drugs test. The Manchester United and England defender arrived at the Funky Buddha nightclub in Mayfair in a stretch limousine and was soon seen kissing and cuddling Bosnian-born Dijana Jenkins, 32, who was wearing a revealing black mini dress and thigh-high boots.

Onlookers said Ferdinand, who 'had a big cheeky grin on his face', was unable to keep either his eyes or his hands off Dijana, who had brought a group of models to party with his entourage.

The couple gyrated together on the dancefloor before heading off to her penthouse in Battersea, south London. From there, Ferdinand arranged for a change of clothing to be sent from The Ritz.

A few days later, Dijana flew out for a Christmas holiday in Rio de Janeiro with her investment banker husband, five-year-old son and two-year-old daughter.

She subsequently denied knowing Ferdinand, while the footballer admitted knowing her but denied any relationship.

Yet the story lacked one interesting fact. Dijana is the second wife of Roger Jenkins, the banker who, Financial Mail revealed recently, was paid more than £19.5m last year by his bosses at Barclays Capital. That figure makes Jenkins, 49 last Thursday, the highest-paid employee of any FTSE company and almost certainly the best-paid investment banker in the City last year.

His package dwarfs the £3m paid in 2003 to Matt Barrett, former chief executive of Barclays, and is more than three times the total paid to the bank's five executive directors.

Now the Battersea apartment has been sold, along with a home in Palm Springs, Florida, where Dijana preferred to stay and where Jenkins spent long periods, flying there by private jet.

His property portfolio is reduced to a £4m house on the exclusive Wentworth Estate in Surrey and a house in Mayfair - a short walk from the Funky Buddha.

So what does Jenkins, who once represented Scotland as a sprinter, do to earn his fabulous salary? It is a question that Barclays Capital would prefer was not asked because, in its simplest form, Jenkins and colleagues Ian Abrahams and Mike Keeley spend their days working out clever ways to slash the tax bills of companies, including Barclays. His two colleagues are believed to have earned about £10 million each last year. Every bank in the City employs a structured finance division that performs the same role, but none is believed to be anywhere near as successful as either Barclays Capital or Jenkins.

Some competitors calculate that Jenkins' team generated more than 100% of Barclays Capital's profits in 2002 - suggesting that other key operations in the division operated at a loss - and probably produced more than half the surplus for 2003. Barclays Capital said these figures were 'gross exaggerations' and claimed Jenkins was in charge of four businesses, of which 'tax-efficient financing' was only one. These, said a spokesman, 'generate less than 20% of the bank's revenues'.

One competitor said: 'Every piece of information I hear about Roger Jenkins points to him being a fantastically significant person in relation to Barclays' profits. There is no way he would be paid so much money if he wasn't.'

A former colleague said: 'He is probably the most aggressive tax structurer in the City. The brains behind the division is Abrahams, a former lawyer at Slaughter & May, but Jenkins is driven to succeed. I wouldn't say he is brilliantly bright, but he is very good at internal politics.'

Another said: 'When Barclays boss John Varley holds internal conference calls about strategy, for example, Roger is very audible. He is extremely good at promoting himself and being friendly to the people that matter.'

His aptitude for internal politics means Barclays pays a fee to its Barclays Capital subsidiary when Jenkins' division completes a deal that saves the bank money. Indeed, Barclays paid £89m to its subsidiary last year and the bulk of that is believed to cover his commission for his tax-saving ideas. Barclays Capital declined to comment on the figure.

'That was an incredible coup for Jenkins,' said one colleague. 'Banks are particularly sensitive about being seen to avoid taxes, so to reward the guy that saves them money is something else.'

Jenkins, who once drove a Bentley convertible but now favours a silver Mercedes, joined Barclays as a graduate trainee in 1978, five years after coming third in the 400 metres at the British International Games at Crystal Palace. Alan Pascoe came first.

Sprinting is in the genes of the wiry banker. His brother, David, won a silver medal in the 4x400 metres at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and a gold medal for Scotland at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton in the 4x100 metres relay. But in 1987, David Jenkins pleaded guilty in San Diego to his part in a £100m steroid-smuggling ring between Mexico and America and was sentenced to seven years.

Since his release, David Jenkins has made a fortune through the manufacture of America's biggest-selling protein supplement. 'Roger is incredibly proud of his brother,' said one friend, 'and very protective of him.'

Roger is also incredibly protective of Dijana - and extremely keen to tell everybody that his wife never ever partied with Rio Ferdinand.