Barclays has appointed its head of retail and business banking, Antony Jenkins, as the bank’s chief executive – he takes the helm immediately.
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Considered in the City as a safe pair of hands, Mr Jenkins has the added advantage of not having been tainted by prior involvement in the Barclays’ investment banking arm. Indeed, it’s rumoured that he, alongside new chairman Sir David Walker - who joins Barclays in November - could scale back the investment bank by around 20 per cent.
But Mr Jenkins has taken the top job just as a new reputational threat begins to brew - the Serious Fraud Office is investigating fees paid to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund in 2008 when the bank was seeking fresh capital to avoid a government bailout.
