Barclays managing directors (MDs), most of whom are categorised as material risk takers, are being rewarded generously for their efforts last year.
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Filings accompanying the British bank’s fourth quarter results show that material risk takers at Barclays’ investment bank received their highest bonuses, on average, for six years in compensation for 2025. This was despite a feeble year for its investment bankers.
Barclays employs 1,465 material risk takers in its investment bank and it paid them a total of £732m ($1m) in bonuses, or £901k each. Six years ago, the average bonus for Barclays’ MRTs was £557k.
Barclays investment bank MRTs also received salaries averarging £652k, leading to a total package of £1.6m.
Barclays’ generosity followed a feeble year for its bankers, in which M&A fees increased only 2%, equity capital markets fees fell 21% and debt capital markets fees rose 1%. The bank’s global share of investment banking fees fell from 3.3% in 2024 to 3% in 2025 as a result.
Despite this, Barclays continues to talk of pivoting to an advisory based model and growing its investment banking operations. By 2028, it aspires to boost its share of global investment banking fees to 3.5%.
While Barclays bankers floundered, its salespeople and traders maintained their own share of global revenues at 6.5%. Barclays said today that macro, securitised products and credit trading were strong last year, as was prime financing.
Although the average Barclays investment bank MRT (including, bankers and markets professionals) received a £900k bonus for last year, bonuses will not have been allocated equally. As the chart below shows, across the bank as a whole, bonuses were skewed towards top performers as ever last year.
762 people across the bank earned over €1 last year. Someone earned €17m-18m. 89 people at Barclays earned over €3.9m compared to 60 in 2024.
Photo: Unsplash
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