Barclays’ results were out this morning. Barclays’ corporate and investment bank (CIB) looked good: profits in the unit rose 14% from 2015 and revenues were up 42% in Q4, versus Bernstein’s market average of 16%.

So, is now a good moment to join Barclays? More to the point, is now the time to leave JPMorgan and join CEO Jes Staley?

1. BARCLAYS REALLY LOVES TO HIRE FROM JPMORGAN.  If you work for JPMorgan and you join Barclays, you’ll feel right at home. Barclays is where JPMorgan alumni reconvene. The chief executive is from JPMorgan. The head of the investment bank is from JPMorgan.  The CIO is from JPMorgan.  The COO is from JPMorgan. And the CRO is from … JPMorgan. The route from Barclays to JPMorgan could not be more well-trodden if it were an ancient neolithic track.

That said, all these fancy JPMorgan hires over the past 12 months have been causing some upset at Barclays. The British bank theoretically had a hiring freeze last year and has plenty of legacy staff who could have filled the top roles. The murmurs of discontent have been suppressed by CEO Jes Staley, who reportedly stood up at a recent town hall and said 2017 will be a difficult year and that the [talented] JPMorgan people have come to, “fix the bank for you.” So not only is Barclays hiring from JPMorgan, it’s also eulogizing JPMorgan people as its rescuers….

2. BARCLAYS HAS DONE AWAY WITH ITS HORRIBLE BONUS DEFERRALS FOR MD’S.    Barclays has stopped breaking out bonuses for its investment bank (now grouped together with the corporate bank in the style of JPMorgan), so we can’t say whether the investment banking bonus pool is really down by another 7% as reported by Bloomberg yesterday. Barclays did say, however, that the 2016 bonus pool for its front office investment bankers is down a mere 1% on 2015 (at £875m) and that a far higher proportion of its bonuses are being paid in cash.

The higher cash bonuses are good news. For the past three years (at least), Barclays has deferred 100% of all bonuses over £250k ($312k) and 100% of all bonuses for its managing directors. Recipients received nothing at all in year one and everything over years two, three and four.

Not any more. To flex compensation expenses to match revenues, Barclays said today that it will structure bonuses for its material risk takers (MRTs) as per the following chart from its 2016 remuneration report. In other words, 100% deferrals now only kick-in above £1m, and senior Barclays people can now receive 40% of their bonuses in cash in the first year.

Other points to consider (clink below link for their details):

• THERE ARE SPECIAL PEOPLE EARNING HUGE MONEY AT BARCLAYS.
• BARCLAYS CREDIT TRADERS ARE SOME OF THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS.
• BARCLAYS DIDN’T HAVE AS GOOD A YEAR AS JPMORGAN IN 2016, BUT THIS WASN’T ITS POINT.

• BARCLAYS’ FIXED INCOME TRADING BUSINESS IS MORE STABLE THAN JPMORGAN’S.

• BARCLAYS’ EQUITIES BUSINESS CAN ONLY GROW (IN THEORY).

• BARCLAYS IS KIND OF LIKE A MINI J.P. MORGAN IN IBD.