Barclays' long term bonus deal pay outs for bosses

As the government today unveils its proposals to give shareholders more power, some of the long term bonus deals for Barclays' top brass have paid out.

Rich Ricci, (yes that really is his name), is cashing in £9.6 million's worth of shares.

His colleague, Jerry del Misser, is releasing even more at £10.7 million.

The chief executive, Bob Diamond, is only selling about £69,000's worth of shares today.

But don't feel too sorry for him. Papers lodged at the Stock Exchange today reveal that he now owns about 13 million shares - at today's share price, that is worth more than £30 million.

These announcements were made to the FTSE at roughly the same time as the government spelled out the details of its consultation on giving shareholders more clout to rein in top pay.

As we've discussed here before some leading shareholders have made plain they are less than happy with how the Barclay's top team are paid.

A leading remuneration lawyer tells me they think the government proposals for a binding shareholder vote will make a difference, because no firm would want to risk the embarassment of having their pay refused in such a public way.

But there is a whole generation of executives who have done really rather well out of an extraordinary period.

If indeed, as the government hopes there is a sudden surge in shareholder power, by then, a small but very wealthy band, will have had plenty of time to salt plenty away for their retirements.