After the much publicized move by senior executives at Swiss banking giant UBS to forego annual bonuses this year, other financial institutions are following suit. Only a day after seven senior officials at Wall Street brokerage firm and investment bank Goldman Sachs decided not to take their usual multi-million dollar annual payouts, their British counterparts at Barclays Plc have decided to emulate the gesture. (See: Goldman Sachs senior executives to forgo bonuses for 2008)

Barclays CEO John Varley, investment banking chief Robert Diamond, consumer bank head Frits Seegers and finance director Chris Lucas will forgo their 2008 bonuses, the London-based bank said today. Diamond, the bank's top-paid director, got a £6.5 million ($9.75 million) bonus last year as well as his £250,000 base salary.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc announced Sunday that seven executives, including chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, would get no cash or stock bonuses for 2008. Blankfein received total compensation of $54 million last year, making him the sixth-highest-paid CEO of a Standard & Poor's 500 company in 2007.

It's the first time top Goldman executives have not received bonuses since the 139-year-old investment bank went public in 1999. The executives decided to forgo the payments this time "because they believe it's the right thing to do," Goldman spokesman Michael duVally said.

Wall Street employees often receive up to 80 per cent of their total compensation from year-end bonuses. Now those payments are attracting more scrutiny from lawmakers and consumer groups because taxpayers are footing the bill for the government's $700 billion financial bailout.

Other banks are feeling pressure to follow Goldman's lead. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Monday urged Citigroup Inc. executives to forgo their bonuses this year, hours after the company announced it would lay off 50,000 workers. (See: Citigroup to slash 50,000 jobs worldwide)

"It would send exactly the wrong message for Citigroup's top brass to collect bonuses while investors, taxpayers, and now Citigroup's own employees suffer," said Cuomo, who is probing the use of bailout money by New York-based firms.

Bank of America said last week that its bonus-compensation pool for senior managers is expected to be reduced by more than 50 per cent, though final decisions on pay have not been made. Deutsche Bank AG CEO Josef Ackermann, the highest-paid executive of Germany's top 30 companies, last month agreed to forgo his bonus, along with investment banking chiefs Anshu Jain, Michael Cohrs and members of the bank's management and supervisory boards.