Bob Diamond, the president of Barclays, will take home £21 million in pay for last year, despite a 31 per cent drop in the bank’s stock and more than £1.6 billion in sub-prime-related writedowns. The bumper pay package is likely to make Mr Diamond the best-paid executive in the FTSE 100.

The 56-year-old American did see the value of his shares drop by more than £24 million, however, on the back of last year’s price fall. His stake, worth £75 million at the end of 2006, was worth £51 million by last December as the credit crunch took its toll.

Mr Diamond’s total cash-and-shares pay for 2007 was slightly down from the £22 million that he earned in 2006, after the bank reported a 1 per cent fall in reported pretax profits for 2007 to £7 billion.

Mr Diamond, who earned £16.8 million more last year than John Varley, the chief executive, picked up a £7 million cash bonus on top of his 2007 pay after exceeding the target on a three-year incentive plan, according to the annual report, released yesterday.

Unite, the union, said that Barclays’ workers would be astonished by Mr Diamond’s multimillion-pound pay-day, which dwarfs the £17,000 average salary paid by the bank. “The millions of pounds awarded to the directors are only possible because of the hard work put in by staff,” Keith Brookes, a Unite official, said.

Mr Diamond’s supporters said he had presided over a record performance at Barclays Capital, the bank’s investment bank, which last year delivered a 5 per cent rise in pretax profit to £2.3 billion. He also runs Barclays Global Investors and Barclays Wealth, both of which saw higher profits last year. Yet the bank also took a charge of £1.6 billion for 2007 – £300 million higher than an earlier estimate – on sub-prime-related investments made mainly by Mr Diamond’s divisions.

Mr Varley was paid £2.4 million in salary, benefits and cash bonus last year, compared with £2.5 million in 2006. Mr Diamond’s pay fell from £10.9 million to £6.7 million. While Mr Varley was awarded £618,000worth of stock, Mr Diamond received £11.3 million-worth of shares. Under a long-term incentive plan, Mr Varley was awarded £1.2 million worth of shares, compared with a £3 million award for Mr Diamond.

The bank also said it had increased its undrawn backstop liquidity facility for commercial paper conduits, which banks use to fund their businesses, from £15 billion to £19 billion.

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