Barclays first British bank to remove EU bonus caps for bankers

Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Barclays formally removed the cap on banker bonuses on Thursday, some four months after shareholders at the company approved steps to drop restrictions originally approved when Britain was part of the European Union.

Barclays becomes the first British bank to remove the restrictions since Brexit, relieving the country's institutions of those rules. The step could allow staff to receive 10 times their salary in payouts. Other major banks had been in the process of lifting the regulations, as well.

"At an individual level, total compensation will continue to be performance-based and market-informed," an internal memo to staff said, according to The Guardian. "Generally, the revised bonus cap should not change colleague expectations around total compensation.

"But it will give additional flexibility in how we use variable pay to recognize individual performance ... supporting Barclays and retaining the best talent globally in a competitive market."

Barclays said that removing the cap will give the institution more flexibility in handing out bonuses among a pool of workers. It said that the potential bonus will put Barclays more in line with JP Morgan, allowing it to be more competitive in attracting the best banking talent.

About 1,600 Barclays employees around the world would be affected by the cap's removal.