Trouble brewing for Barclays ahead of pay vote

In the last hour or so shareholders at the American bank Citi have rejected the bosses' pay deal there.

Vikram Pandit was due to receive $15 million for his work in 2011, in a year when the bank's shares fell 44%.

So will British shareholders be as bold as shareholders across the Atlantic?

Next week Barclays' investors have a chance to have their say on the pay of Bob Diamond and his colleagues, including his 'tax equalisation' payment which has raised so many eyebrows.

One experienced City hand told me they had never before seen anything like it in their career, even though there is some evidence that others have received similar.

Mr Diamond himself has described the bank's returns for shareholders this year as 'unacceptable', so just how many shareholders will feel that he does not therefore deserve his pay packet of £6.3 million?

In the last few days the bank's chairman, Marcus Agius, has been trying to smooth out the concerns many investors feel with what have been described as 'concessions' - promises of changes to pay in the future, perhaps as much as a 75% cut.

But one major investor told me this afternoon that "they are not really concessions at all".

They suggested the bank is "facing up to a number of institutions" voting against the pay deal.

Barclays, they said, feel "they still have a fan club but are struggling to expand it".

Barclays did make a significant cut to the total size of bonuses it is awarding this year, a fall of around a third.

And there are very well-rehearsed arguments about why banks feel they need to pay at these kind of levels in order to attract and retain the best talent for their businesses.

So it is very unlikely that a majority of shareholders would vote against.

But the number of those voting against could be as high as 20%, making life very difficult for the head of the remuneration committee, Alison Carnwath, and very embarassing indeed for the bank.