Does Barclays punishment fit its crime? Probably not.

Leading City institutions will welcome the opportunity to register a protest vote against board members of the UK's third largest bank for seriously mishandling them over its £7.3 billion capital-raising plan.

They might also applaud the decision by executive directors to waive their annual bonuses for the current financial year - although the truth is Barclays could hardly have justified any other move.

But for most of the bank's big-gun investors, these issues were only ever a sideshow in the battle to establish that their pre-emption rights must remain intact.

It is unlikely that any of Barclays shareholders seriously want to topple John Varley as chief executive, Bob Diamond as president or Marcus Agius as chairman.

By far the biggest cheer will go up among investors when they receive the letter written to Barclays shareholders today, which states that it has no intention of allowing this particular way of raising capital to set a precedent.

Nothing would have been worse for Barclays long-term shareholders, who will hold a substantial stake in the rest of corporate Britain as well, than other companies in dire need of cash using the Barclays model as a template.

Today, Barclays' two big Middle-Eastern investors, Qatar Holding and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, agreed to make available a total of £500 million of high-interest bearing Reserve Capital Instruments to existing shareholders.

These debt-like securities pay a chunky coupon of 14 per cent and their costs can be offset against tax.

The concession means that the bank's long-term owners will have the chance to participate in Barclays' crunch financing exercise on the same terms.

Barclays will not raise additional funds and is financially pretty much unaffected by the changes.

Index and tracker funds are unlikely to be mollified, as they are probably restricted from owning any security other than an equity.

But for the rest, an important turf battle has been won.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax