It has been roughly two months to the day that Barclays announced it had increased the size of its 2018 bonus pool for the first time in five years. Bonuses were up 9% across the board, and incentivized compensation for investment bankers was said to have risen by a similar percentage. Needless to say, they didn’t have much time to celebrate. With the checks barely having cleared in their accounts, investment bankers at Barclays will once again be on the receiving end of bonus cuts as the bank prepares for a showdown with activist investor Edward Bramson.