Signaling a return to its British banking roots, Barclays has appointed an insider, Antony Jenkins, to be chief executive, as the bank aims to restore its reputation after a rate-manipulation scandal.
Mr. Jenkins, an Oxford-educated Briton who led the retail and business banking unit, steps into the top spot during a period of continued upheaval for Barclays.
The bank is trying to distance itself from the interest-rate scandal that occurred under the watch of Robert E. Diamond Jr., who resigned as chief executive in July. The bank also faces questions about its capital-raising efforts in 2008. On Wednesday, Barclays disclosed that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office had opened an investigation into the matter, following a similar inquiry by the Financial Services Authority.
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Documents: The news releaseMr. Jenkins, 51, acknowledged the challenges ahead, saying the bank had “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,” Mr. Jenkins said in a statement.
Libor Explained
Early on, Mr. Jenkins emerged as a favorite for the top job. With his background in the relatively tame world of consumer banking, he looked to be the antithesis of Mr. Diamond, who came to represent the riskier pursuits of investment banking.
Mr. Diamond, an outspoken American investment banker, had infused Barclays with a hard-charging ethos, turning the bank into a top player on Wall Street. But some British regulators and politicians had blamed that culture for the bank’s ethical lapses.
In June, Barclays agreed to pay $450 million to settle accusations by American and British authorities that it attempted to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a key benchmark. Regulators accused the bank of reporting false rates to bolster profits and make its financial position appear healthier, the first case stemming from a multiyear investigation into more than a dozen global banks. Mr. Diamond resigned less than a week after the settlement.
Shortly after Mr. Diamond stepped down, analysts and bank employees posited that Mr. Jenkins would be a good fit for the job, citing his genial style and focus on consumer banking.
As the search process gained steamed, Mr. Jenkins had meetings with the bank’s board of directors. The board also pursued William T. Winters, a former senior investment banking executive at JPMorgan Chase.
Ultimately, the board seized, in part, on Mr. Jenkins’s knowledge of the bank’s inner workings after serving two six-year stints at Barclays.
Mr. Jenkins, who got his start at Barclays in 1983 as a graduate trainee, rejoined the firm in 2006 to lead the bank’s credit card business, Barclaycard. In November 2009, he was named chief executive of the retail and business banking group, and joined the executive committee.
Marcus Agius, the Barclays chairman who is stepping down in November, said in a statement that Mr. Jenkins “stood out among a very competitive field of internal and external candidates because of his excellent track record transforming Barclaycard and retail and business banking.” Mr. Agius will be succeeded by David Walker.
Despite the scandals, the bank is doing pretty well.
It emerged from the financial crisis relatively unscathed, using its strength to purchase some assets from the bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers. In the first half of the year, net profit at Barclays rose 9 percent, to £3.07 billion, from £2.8 billion in the period a year earlier, excluding an accounting charge and other one-time costs.
The main challenge for Mr. Jenkins will be bolstering the bank’s credibility and addressing its myriad legal liabilities.
The Justice Department is investigating Barclays traders as part of the broad Libor case and could bring criminal charges. The bank is also facing private litigation over rate manipulation.
Other inquiries focus on the bank’s capital-raising efforts during the depths of the financial crisis.
On Wednesday, Barclays disclosed that the Serious Fraud Office, the British government agency that investigates and prosecutes white-collar crime cases, “has commenced an investigation into payments under certain commercial agreements between Barclays and Qatar Holding.” Last month, the bank confirmed that the Financial Services Authority was investigating “Barclays and four current and former senior employees, including Chris Lucas, group finance director,” regarding “the sufficiency of disclosure in relation to fees.”
Unlike its peers, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and the Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays managed to avoid a government bailout in the dark days of 2008, turning instead to sovereign wealth funds in Abu Dhabi and Qatar for an infusion of capital.
Barclays raised a total of £4.5 billion ($7.1 billion) from Qatar in July and October 2008. Qatar Holding is currently the largest shareholder in Barclays, with a 6.65 percent stake, according to Bloomberg data.
Barclays said last month that it “considers that it satisfied its disclosure obligations and confirms that it will cooperate fully with the F.S.A.’s investigation.”
The bank said Mr. Jenkins’s annual salary would be £1.1 million, with an annual bonus of up to a maximum of 250 percent of his salary. He also stands to gain up to 400 percent of his annual salary under the bank’s long-term incentive program.
Shares of Barclays fell 0.9 percent in morning trading in London on Thursday.
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