Barclays investment bank boss quits amid raft of leadership changes as chief executive Jes Staley takes greater control
The head of Barclays’ investment bank has resigned amid a raft of leadership changes, which will see chief executive Jes Staley take greater control of the division.
Tim Throsby has stepped down as head of the lender’s investment bank, which has come under attack from activist investor Ed Bramson recently.
Read more: Barclays issues plea to shareholders to reject Ed Bramson's board bid
Bramson, whose investment vehicle Sherborne Investors has a 5.5 per cent stake in the bank, has called for the unit to be scaled back.
But chief executive Jes Staley has defied the US-based investor’s concerns to grow the investment banking operations, and was rewarded with better-than-expected results last year.
A Barclays spokesman said the changes were not linked to Bramson’s advances and would have been implemented if Sherborne were not on its investor register.
Under the changes Staley will become interim chief executive of Barclays International and Barclays Bank Plc, the legal entity which houses the Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB) unit.
“I believe we need a more granular execution focus on the businesses within the CIB if we are to drive those returns, in a reasonable timeframe, towards and above that cost of capital,” Staley said.
“And so I have decided to change the leadership model for that business, delayering the organisation in order to bring oversight and accountability for the performance of the investment bank much closer to me as group chief executive.”
New leadership of the CIB’s three divisions, banking, markets and corporate bank will report directly to Staley as he takes greater control.
Read more: Three directors to leave Barclays board as bank faces Bramson threat
The bank’s chief operating officer Paul Compton will also become president of the division.
Throsby, who joined Barclays in 2017, decided to quit the company following the changes, the bank said today.
Ashok Vaswani, current chief executive of Barclays UK, will become global head of consumer banking and payments, also reporting directly to Staley.