British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson on Saturday called the president of Barclays bank the "unacceptable face of banking" in an unusually personal attack ahead of an imminent national election. Mandelson told the Times newspaper that Bob Diamond, head of the bank's Barclays Capital investment division, had earned a huge salary by deal-making and shuffling paper rather than creating economic value.
Mandelson's remarks reflect a hardening attitude towards bankers' remuneration following the global financial crisis, as political parties position themselves ahead of the election expected on May 6. Britain has levied a one-off tax on bankers' bonuses and plans to force banks to reveal how many of their staff receive salary packages of more than 500,000 pounds ($760,000). Mandelson's comments follow a similar attack on Diamond last week by the opposition Conservatives, who lead Labour in opinion polls.
Newspapers have reported Diamond earned 63 million pounds in 2009, although the total is rejected by Barclays as it includes share awards from different years and 27 million pounds from the sale of his stake in a bank subsidiary. It says Diamond was paid 250,000 pounds last year and took no bonus. But Mandelson, effectively number two in the Labour government, used the larger total to criticise Diamond. Barclays, Britain's second-largest bank by market value, avoided a state bail-out during the financial crisis and doubled its profits to 11.6 billion pounds last year.
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