Barclays revealed one of the most closely guarded secrets in London's financial markets - the pay packet of Bob Diamond, their head of investment banking.
The bank, which is bracing itself for accusations of fat-cat compensation, believes the 53-year-old American born banker has earned his keep, which could total over £15 million this year if he performs well.
Diamond has joined Barclays main board requiring Britain's third biggest bank to disclose his pay, something which until now is said to have stopped him from accepting a seat at the top table.
The pay, praise and elevation is a far cry from the days when a newly installed Mr Diamond's job was on the line after the Russian financial crisis in 1998 caused big losses for his operation.
His investment banking division now accounts for the lion's share of the bank's growth, having tripled profits since 1999, and he has control of Barclays' asset management and private client divisions.
Barclays Capital boosted its pretax profit by 25 per cent to £1.04 billion in 2004, adding more to group profit than the core UK banking business, which is more than twice its size. Barclays said the outlook for profit growth at the investment bank was strong. When Diamond took over in 1997 Barclays Capital's return on economic capital was 13 per cent, a figure which had almost tripled to 36 per cent by 2004.
"The speed with which Barclays reacted to the Russian crisis and the fact that every other bank fell on its face has allowed him to keep his job and fulfil his potential," said Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein analyst Simon Maughan.
Mr Diamond joined BZW, the predecessor to Barclays Capital, in 1996 from Credit Suisse First Boston, where he had a senior role in fixed income. He became head of Barclays Capital in 1997 after Barclays sold its equities and corporate finance arms to CSFB. Mr Diamond was appointed to revive the investment banking arm by running a stripped down, debt-focused business tapping Europe's growing credit markets. But losses from the Russian crisis forced Barclays to take a £250 million hit.
In the wake of Russia's turmoil, jobs were cut, proprietary trading was reduced and the bank focused on debt origination and rates.
As equity markets and interest rates fell, the fixed-income business prospered, and Mr Diamond began an ambitious expansion that made some wary.
Richard Peirson of Framlington Investment Management had lunch with Mr Diamond two years ago and decided the market was overly concerned about his business.
"He had a very clear grasp of what the business was about and the key things that were important in growing the business, like management of risk," Mr Peirson said.
The question for many in the market is how the bank's fixed income focus will fare as these markets stutter and equity and mergers and acquisitions business eventually recovers.
Mr Diamond says his business model is less cyclical than people believe, with a large business to help companies manage risk in a rising rate environment, and growing equity divisions such as prime brokerage and derivatives.
Over the longer term Mr Diamond believes Europe's credit markets can only grow, and notes that less than a third of continental European companies use public debt markets.
This upbeat view is characteristic of the man, say people who know him.
"He was extremely popular, always smiling, joking. Always in a good frame of mind," said Mark Ambrose, who went to high school with Mr Diamond in Concord, Massachusetts, the town in which Mr Diamond, now a British citizen, was raised, and where the war that would kick Britain out of the future United States began.