Barclays on Bonus Caps: We Don't Need Rules
Assistant Producer, CNBC Asia
We don't need regulation on executive compensation to demonstrate responsibility, Rich Ricci, the chief executive of corporate and investment banking at Barclays told CNBC a day after it was reported that European officials will propose legislation to give shareholders voting rights to challenge executive pay at public companies.
"The legislative movement is clearly something we need to be concerned about - but we don't need those type of rules to demonstrate responsibly. Post the Libor [fixing scandal] and some of the other issues we had, we did the right thing by clawing back. I don't think you need to regulate," Ricci said on Thursday.
In late February, it was reported that the British bank was taking back around $450 million of deferred bonuses from its employees to pay for hefty fines resulting from rate rigging and mis-selling of payment protection insurance.
Executive pay has been in the spotlight in the recent weeks, with the European Union leaders last week striking a deal to cap banker bonuses at double their salary. Excessive banker bonuses, which have been under sharp criticism following the global financial crisis, have been partly blamed for triggering excessive risk-taking by investment banks.
Barclays, which posted a net loss of $1.3 billion in the October-December quarter, has recently outlined restructuring plans to boost profitability, including cutting 3,700 jobs worldwide -1,800 in corporate and investment banking and 1,900 in its retail and business banking.
(Read More: Barclays CEO: We Were Too Aggressive, Self-Serving)
Ricci, however, dismissed any further job cuts in Asia saying, "I think we're done. We have no plans to cut anything else here in Asia."
"We resized our business for opportunities that presents itself, and we are comfortable we have done that now," he added.