Top Executives at Barclays (NYSE:BCS) To Waive 2009 Bonuses, Royal Bank of Scotland (LON: RBS) and Lloyds (LON: LLOY) May Follow

In a move that will place pressure on the rest of London’s banking sector, two top executives at Barclays Corporation (NYSE: BCS), including John Varley and Bob Diamond, have announced that they will forgo their 2009 bonuses.

Varley and Diamond are the two most prominent figures at Barclays. It is presently unclear what amount of bonuses the two would have received, but Barclays has put aside a total of 3 billion GBP for staff bonuses and the amount that the two would have received would have most likely been substantial.

It was also revealed yesterday that the average investment banking bonus in Britain will be 191,000 GBP though many of the 23,000 investment bankers in the group have received bonuses several million pounds..

London’s Politicians are still very sensitive to the fact that taxpayer funding was used to support companies such as Barclays bank, via the Bank of England’s liquidity injections and quantitative easing program.

Company bosses at the Royal Bank of Scotland (LON: RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group (LON: LLOY) may be forced to follow suit with their bonuses, although official confirmation from the companies involved is still forthcoming.

Once the banking sector is stable again and the memories of taxpayer assistance have been forgotten, British banks will likely return to their multi-million dollar bonus packages, but until then, there will continue to be public pressure to reduce salaries and bonuses.