Former CRO becomes CEO as Barclays’ Jes Staley steps down

This decision has been made after the group was “made aware on Friday evening of the preliminary conclusions” of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) investigation into Staley’s characterisation of his relationship with Jeffery Epstein.

The bank said that Staley intends to contest the conclusions and that the investigation “makes no findings that Staley saw, or was aware of, any of Mr Epstein’s alleged crimes”.

The bank’s board praised Staley’s success at the firm and is said to be “disappointed” at the outcome, but added that the “regulatory process still has to run its full course” and that it would not be appropriate for Barclays to comment further on the preliminary conclusions.

The FCA and PRA also said it’s not commenting “beyond confirming the regulatory actions” in Barclays’ announcement.

According to The Guardian, in an internal memo to Barclays’ staff Staley said: “The reasons for my decision are simple.

“The FCA and PRA let me know on Friday evening the draft conclusions of their investigation into the characterisation of a professional relationship I developed earlier in my career. I do not want my personal response to those matters to be a distraction from the fantastic work you do every day to support our customers and clients.”

Following the announcement, Barclays’ share price dropped from 202.25 to a low of 194.76, with it trading at the time of writing at 198.25 - a drop of nearly two percent.

As of today (1 November), C.S. Venkatakrishnan will take over as group chief executive, subject to regulatory approval, and as a director of Barclays.

Venkatakrishnan has previously held the positions of group chief risk officer and head of global markets at Barclays.

The company has said the board had this succession plan in hand for some time, including reviewing potential external appointees, and identified Venkatakrishnan as its preferred candidate over a year ago.