London, March 7 (IANS) Barclays has given its new chief executive a whopping bonus of 6.5 million pounds for his performance as the head of Barclays' investment banking and wealth management operations in 2010.

The revelation has been made in the bank's remuneration report.

The figure is on top of Bob Diamond's 250,000 pounds annual salary, BBC reported Monday.

Diamond's predecessor John Varley, who was chief executive for 2010, got a bonus of 2.2 million pounds, in addition to his annual salary of 1.1 million pounds.

Varley also received 550,000 pounds as an annual performance cash incentive.

Diamond has come under criticism for stating that he thought the time for remorse and apology from banks was over.

"Bob Diamond tries to convince taxpayers that the era of remorse and regret within banking is over, yet he has no shame in pocketing a seven-figure bonus.

"There is no possible justification for this highly-paid individual taking home this enormous windfall," said Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union while reacting over the publication of Barclays' remuneration report.

Barclays reported pre-tax profits of 6.07 billion pounds for 2010. It's a rise of almost a third on the 4.59 billion pound profit the bank made the previous year.

Diamond took over as Barclays chief executive at the beginning of 2011.