After the Libor manipulation scandal, Barclays pays particular attention to restore its reputation. Friday, its chief executive, Antony Jenkins, announced that he will waive his £1 million bonus, deemed “inappropriate”. Monday, February 4th, the British bank announced the departure of two senior executives of the group, a week before the unveiling of its new strategic plan on February 12.
The bank said in a statement that “the group finance director Chris Lucas and general counsel, Mark Harding, decided to step down from the group.” Mr. Lucas held office for nearly six years, and Mr. Harding for a decade. The two leaders will leave their positions once the bank has found their successors. Research is already underway but Barclays warns that it could take “considerable time”, given the importance of the functions of the two men.
“Chris and Mark both expressed to me late last year that they were considering stepping down from their roles at Barclays,” said Antony Jenkins, adding: “The rationale which each shared with me was consistent and, typically, grounded in wanting to do what is best for the bank. Their decision to retire was theirs alone.”
Appointed in late August to replace Bob Diamond, who was forced to resign due to the Libor scandal, Antony Jenkins has the difficult task of improve the image of Barclays. Libor scandal, which has since overtaken other financial institutions, erupted in late June, when Barclays revealed it would pay £290 million to end investigations of UK and U.S. regulators over the handling of interbank British Libor and European Euribor rates between 2005 and 2009.
Since then Barclays has been involved in other cases, including the latest for the selling of derivative contracts. The UK Financial Services Authority, FSA, announced Thursday that Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS will indeed have to pay back small and medium-sized enterprises that were sold financial products.
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