Jenkins will focus on Barclays’ image

via Bloomberg

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Roland Jackson London

British bank Barclays named retail and business banking head Antony Jenkins as its new chief executive yesterday, replacing Bob Diamond who resigned last month over the London interbank offered rate (Libor) rigging scandal.

“Barclays announce that Antony Jenkins has been appointed as a director and as group chief executive of Barclays with immediate effect,” the group said in a statement.

The Briton’s appointment comes the day after Barclays revealed that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched a probe into the 2008 investment deal between the bank and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.

Jenkins declared that his top priority would be to repair the bank’s damaged reputation in the wake of the Libor affair.

He said: “We have made serious mistakes in recent years and clearly failed to keep pace with our stakeholders’ expectations.

“We have an obligation to all of those stakeholders – customers, clients, shareholders, colleagues and broader society – and a unique opportunity to restore Barclays’ reputation by making it the ‘go to’ bank in all of our chosen markets. That journey will take time, we have much to do, and I look forward to getting started immediately.”

Jenkins, 51, was head of Barclays’ retail and business banking (RBB) business. He has been a member of the group executive committee of Barclays since 2009.

Diamond, an American citizen, resigned in July over the rate-rigging scandal that engulfed the bank and sullied London’s image as a financial centre.

The scandal erupted in June when UK and US regulators fined Barclays £290 million (R3.8 billion) after the bank admitted attempting to manipulate rates between 2005 and 2009.

However, the fallout risks becoming much wider, with analysts claiming that the lender could face massive lawsuits since mortgage rates passed onto customers were influenced by Libor rates.

Barclays had already announced that David Walker would be its new chairman from November, succeeding Marcus Agius who also quit over the affair.

Deutsche Bank analysts meanwhile described Jenkins as the “natural internal choice” for the position of chief executive.

In morning trade, however, Barclays’ share price slid 1.1 percent to £1.84 on the London Stock Exchange. – Sapa-AFP