Scandal hit Barclays bank axes chief executive - Capital Business
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

World

Scandal hit Barclays bank axes chief executive

Barclays Africa received the award for the first time in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe

Scandal hit Barclays bank axes chief executive/AFP

LONDON, Jul 8- Troubled British bank Barclays, plagued by the forex and Libor rigging scandals, announced Wednesday that it has fired chief executive Antony Jenkins with immediate effect.

Barclays management has “concluded that new leadership is required” to accelerate an overhaul of the beleaguered group, it revealed in a statement on the surprise decision.

Jenkins has now left the group with immediate effect, a spokesman confirmed to AFP. Chairman John McFarlane has been appointed executive chairman until a successor to Jenkins is found.

“I reflected long and hard on the issue of group leadership and discussed this with each of the non executive directors,” said deputy chairman Sir Michael Rake.

“Notwithstanding Antony’s significant achievements, it became clear to all of us that a new set of skills were required for the period ahead.”

Jenkins replaced Bob Diamond in July 2012 — who himself was forced to resign after the damaging Libor rate fixing scandal.

The retail banking veteran had vowed to bring a new culture of decency to Barclays, and oversaw drastic restructuring that shrank its investment bank.

 

Barclays was fined £290 million by British and US regulators in 2012 for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank rates 2005 and 2009.

Jenkins has however struggled to restore the group’s damaged reputation which was also tarnished by forex rigging.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

“In the summer of 2012, I became group chief executive at a particularly difficult time for Barclays,” Jenkins said in Wednesday’s statement.

“It is easy to forget just how bad things were three years ago both for our industry and even more so for us.”

He added: “I am very proud of the significant progress we have made since then. Our capital position is much stronger, our business model is more balanced, we are much more disciplined on cost management, we have made good progress in rebuilding our reputation and we are seen as a leader in the application of technology to our business.”

Under Jenkins, Barclays slashed more than 19,000 jobs, but the group has struggled to recover from the Libor fallout.

The Libor system — which has since been overhauled — was found to be open to abuse, with some traders lying about borrowing costs to boost trading positions or make their bank seem more secure.

In another damaging blow, Barclays was slapped in May with a $2.4 billion (2.2 billion euro) fine by US and UK regulators for foreign exchange market manipulation.

Six major global banks, including Barclays and British peer Royal Bank of Scotland, were fined a total of almost $6 billion, mostly for rigging the foreign exchange market. Barclays’ fine was the highest because it had not participated in an earlier deal.

Barclays is meanwhile due to post its first half results on July 29.

Jenkins leaves the bank with 12 months’ notice and will receive his current annual salary of £1.1 million ($1.7 million, 1.5 million euros), £950,000 in “role based pay” and a pension of £363,000 a year.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) is the rate banks charge each other for short term loans and underpins $300 trillion of transactions worldwide. Euribor is the eurozone equivalent.

Advertisement

More on Capital Business