Barclays boss Staley gets re-elected, apologises over whistleblowing scandal

Barclays directors have re-elected chief executive Jes Staley, with 97.2% voting in his favour.

However, only 62.6% of Barclays shares were cast in the vote, compared to more than 70% for most of the other options.

The news followed an apology by Staley earlier on Wednesday for his attempts to identify an internal whistleblower, which led to the bank being investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

In his 2017 annual general meeting statement, Staley said: "Before I update shareholders on the performance of your company, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the board's recent announcement regarding whistleblowing.

"As you know, this matter is currently subject to regulatory investigation, and that means I am necessarily limited in what I can say about it.

"However, I feel it is important that I acknowledge to you - our shareholders - that I made a mistake in becoming involved in an issue which I should have left to the business to deal with.

"I have apologised to the board, and I would today like to apologise to you as well, for that error."

Staley's apology came after Institutional Shareholders Services told investors to abstain from supporting his reelection at the AGM.

The Barclays boss also said in his statement that the development of a single market for financial services in Europe, with the full participation of banks based in the UK, remains the best option for the UK economy and the best option for the European Union economy.

"We do not currently see a need in our options to shift British jobs or significant operations elsewhere. If we require a build-up of capability in another European Union jurisdiction as part of our plans then we can do so, and we will."

At 155 BST, the share were up 1.9% to 209.10p.