Exclusive: Barclays' board just secretly signed off on a huge restructuring
A person familiar with the matter told Business Insider the bank's board approved a plan to split its corporate banking arm into three separate parts.
- Small companies: The small-to-medium companies banking arm will go into Barclays' "ring-fenced bank," which will house retail banking once new rules on bank structure are in force in 2019.
- Mid-market companies: will go outside the ring-fenced bank to be housed in the part of the business that includes investment banking.
- Large companies: will also be outside the ring-fenced bank, but be separate from the mid-market segment.
The sign-off happened last week. The move was in response to tough rules forcing UK banks to split their deposit-taking, retail arms and risk-taking investment banking division to make them less likely to need government bailouts in a crisis.
Business Insider asked Barclays for a response on the specific details and the bank e-mailed the following statement:
Barclays has not yet finalised its structural reform plan. Respecting the regulatory process, we have not, and will not, publicly discuss our plan for structural reform until it is formally approved. However we can be clear that any plan we submit for approval will be wholly consistent with both the legal requirements and objectives of ring fencing."
The move is very much in line with the evolving direction of the bank and paves the way for Barclays to merge its big corporate business line and its investment bank, which would boost the bank's risk-taking division as it prepares for a shift in management.
Former CEO Antony Jenkins, ousted in July, will be replaced by Jes Staley - a hedge fund manager at the US-based BlueMountain Capital and former CEO of JPMorgan's investment-banking and asset-management unit.
Staley is the opposite of Jenkins. While Jenkins came from the Barclays retail business, Staley oversaw JP Morgan's expansion into alternative investments. Staley will receive an annual salary of £1.2 million ($1.8 million) and an extra £1.15 million ($1.7 million) delivered in shares as part of role-based pay.