Barclays boss seeks to toss out bad apples

Barclays Portraiture Antony Jenkins LICENSE AGREEMENT This Photograph taken by VisualMedia is supplied with an indefinite license for editorial purposes, but excluding advertorials or competitions. The license also covers internal communications requirements such as newsletters and non-commercial website use. Usage for external marketing / advertising purposes will attract additional fees that need to be negotiated dependent on requirements. For further information please contact VisualMedia on +44 (0)20 7613 2555. Note to Press: These images are supplied free of charge for editorial usage. Mandatory credit: VisMedia

Barclays Portraiture Antony Jenkins LICENSE AGREEMENT This Photograph taken by VisualMedia is supplied with an indefinite license for editorial purposes, but excluding advertorials or competitions. The license also covers internal communications requirements such as newsletters and non-commercial website use. Usage for external marketing / advertising purposes will attract additional fees that need to be negotiated dependent on requirements. For further information please contact VisualMedia on +44 (0)20 7613 2555. Note to Press: These images are supplied free of charge for editorial usage. Mandatory credit: VisMedia

Published Jan 18, 2013

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Reuters London

BARCLAYS’ new boss has told staff they should leave if they do not want to sign up to a set of standards aimed at rebuilding the British bank’s reputation after a string of scandals.

Antony Jenkins, who took over as chief executive at the end of August last year after the bank was rocked by an interest rate rigging scandal, said yesterday that bonuses and performance would be assessed against a new “Purpose and Values” blueprint.

“I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of you… will enthusiastically support this move. But there might be some who don’t feel they can fully buy in to an approach that so squarely links performance to the upholding of our values,” Jenkins said in a memo to his 140 000 staff.

“My message to those people is simple: Barclays is not the place for you. The rules have changed.

“You won’t feel comfortable at Barclays and, to be frank, we won’t feel comfortable with you as colleagues.”

Barclays’ reputation was hammered after it was fined £290 million (R4.1 billion) in June last year for rigging the London interbank offered rate (Libor), which unearthed concerns by Britain’s financial regulator about its culture.

Barclays and other UK banks were also tarnished by scandals involving the mis-selling of financial products.

Jenkins, who took over after Bob Diamond stepped down in the wake of the Libor scandal, said he was putting five values at the heart of his plan: respect, integrity, service, excellence and stewardship.

He will unveil his strategic plan on February 12 , which he said would “excite” staff on what the future holds. But he added that setting new standards was equally important to the bank’s long-term success.

“The behaviour which made those headlines in 2012 took place in the past. But it helped underline how banking as a whole had lost its way, and had lost touch with the values on which reputation and trust were built,” he said.

“Over a period of almost 20 years, banking became too aggressive, too focused on the short term, too disconnected from the needs of our customers and clients, and wider society. We were not immune at Barclays from these mistakes.”

Jenkins said bankers pursued short-term profits at the expense of the bank’s values and reputation, and in the coming weeks more than 1 000 staff would be trained to spread the new values and embed them throughout the bank.

“Performance assessment will be based not just on what we deliver but on how we deliver it. We must never again… reward people for making the bank money in a way that is unethical or inconsistent with our values,” he said.

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