St Antony tells Barclays executives to go back to school to avoid fresh scandals
HUNDREDS of managing directors are going back to school for courses on compliance, risk and crime prevention, Barclays announced yesterday, in the wake of a series of scandals which have devastated the bank’s reputation.
Barclays is spending tens of millions of pounds on a new tie-up with the Cambridge Judge Business School. It hopes all of its 2,000 compliance staff will take the courses, which range from a two-year class for graduate recruits to regional visits and leadership masterclasses for the bosses.
The establishment of the Compliance Career Academy is the latest step in chief exec Antony Jenkins’ effort to clean up the bank’s behaviour and reputation.
Barclays was the first bank to be caught up in the Libor rigging scandal back in 2012, and it expects its PPI mis-selling compensation bill to reach £4.1bn. Last week, it was accused in the US of misleading investors by using its dark pool trading platforms.
Jenkins, who has been dubbed St Antony because of his efforts to clean up the bank, has run a programme to look at every business line and promised to shut down any that could hurt its reputation. He hopes the new scheme will beef up Barclays’ compliance function so more scandals do not occur in future.
“Strong and effective internal compliance is essential to ensuring banks operate in the right way,” said chairman Sir David Walker.
“For the first time, the Compliance Career Academy sets a benchmark for compliance practitioners that I am confident will contribute to raising standards across the industry as a whole.”