Bob Diamond, the highprofile president of Barclays, will personally make $26m (£16m) in profit from a compensation scheme following the sale of Barclays Global Investors to BlackRock.

Senior staff own 4.7 per cent of BGI which, under the terms of the deal, would be worth $634m. They could own up to 9 per cent of the company, worth $1.2bn, but they would first have to pay around £500m for unexercised options.