Barclays Bank shakes up board ahead of ringfencing changes

Barclays has reshuffled its board ahead of the creation of a separate retail and small business bank, as required by the UK’s ringfencing legislation.

The bank is transferring its UK retail and small business operations to a new bank, Barclays Bank UK.

Barclays Bank PLC will continue to own the group’s corporate and investment bank, international private banking and non-UK cards business. It will also remain the listed parent of the group.

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In order to align with the new structure the bank is reshuffling its board with changes due to take effect on or around 1 April, the date the ringfenced structure is introduced.

Sir Gerry Grimstone, currently deputy chair and senior independent director of Barclays PLC and Barclays Bank PLC, will become chair of Barclays Bank PLC while remaining a non-executive director of Barclays PLC.

All Barclays PLC directors other than Grimstone and chief executive Jes Staley will retire from the board of Barclays Bank PLC and a new Barclays Bank PLC board will be set-up under Grimstone’s leadership.

Sir Ian Cheshire will become chair of Barclays Bank UK. He will also remain a non-executive director of Barclays PLC.

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Cheshire was announced as chair of Barclays Bank UK in 2017. He was previously a chief executive of B&Q-owner Kingfisher.

The chief executive of Barclays Bank UK is Ashok Vaswani, who has been with the bank since 2010.

Crawford Gillies will become senior independent director of Barclays PLC and will remain chair of the Barclays PLC remuneration committee, a role he has held since 2015,

Mary Francis will become chair of the Barclays PLC reputation committee, replacing Grimstone.