Barclays targets traders with £30 million

Barclays is attempting to recruit five JP Morgan investment bankers with a bonus package worth a total of 30 million pounds, The Sunday Telegraph reported without citing sources.

It said the deal is one of the most generous since the financial crisis prompted the British government to provide billions of pounds of taxpayer support to prop up the banking system and follows widespread criticism of City bonuses by politicians.

The newspaper said Barclays' investment banking arm, Barclays Capital, is close to poaching one of the City's star commodity traders, Todd Edgar, and his team of four traders at JP Morgan.

A spokesman for Barclays declined to comment.

Although Barclays has not received any direct state money, politicians have argued it has benefited from taxpayer support for the financial system as a whole.

Chancellor Alistair Darling told the Sunday Times the government is prepared to tighten the laws on bankers' pay and bonuses if companies continue to reward excessive risk-taking.